Badia a Coltibuono

Badia a Coltibuono is an abbey founded by Vallombrosan monks in 1051, and vines have grown on the land ever since; the monks are documented as having planted them. The Stucchi Prinetti family bought the property in 1846 and are still there, six generations on.

The estate sits high in the Chianti Classico hills above Gaiole, at 500 to 650 metres, which is unusually elevated for the appellation. Altitude means a longer, slower ripening season and considerably more acidity, and in a warming climate those upper sites have gone from being marginal to being enviable. The vineyards have been farmed organically since 2000.

Roberto Stucchi Prinetti makes the wines, and the house style is deliberately classical: large Slavonian oak casks rather than barrique, and Sangiovese rather than international varieties. Montebello revives the old Tuscan practice of blending Sangiovese with a handful of near-forgotten local grapes, which is closer to what Chianti actually was before the twentieth century tidied it up.