From the atlas
Azienda Agricola Contucci
At A Glance
Producer: Azienda Agricola Contucci Type: Family estate Appellation: Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG / Rosso di Montepulciano DOC Grapes: Prugnolo Gentile, Canaiolo Nero, Mammolo, Colorino, Trebbiano Toscano, Malvasìa del Chianti, Grechetto Vineyards: 21 hectares under vine (15 devoted to Vino Nobile) Annual output: Approximately 100,000 bottles
The Producer
The Contucci family has been cultivating grapes in Montepulciano since the 11th century, making them one of the oldest documented wine-growing families in the appellation. Their cellars run beneath a 16th-century mansion at the heart of the hilltop town, cut into the stone of what were once the town's medieval defensive walls. The winery occupies space that was originally military architecture, and that physical continuity with Montepulciano's medieval past shapes everything about the estate: the scale, the traditional approach in the cellar, and the commitment to growing nothing but the varieties that belong here.
The estate covers 170 hectares, with 21 under vine, of which 15 are planted to produce Vino Nobile. Output runs to approximately 100,000 bottles annually across the two wines in the range.
Place
Montepulciano is a hill town in the province of Siena in southern Tuscany, and it gives its name to two appellations that share the same vineyards and grapes but sit at different levels of the wine-law hierarchy. Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG is the estate's main wine: a red wine built on Prugnolo Gentile, the local name for a Sangiovese clone long grown in this part of Tuscany. The rules require a minimum of 70% Prugnolo Gentile, and Contucci runs their 2020 at 80%, blended with Colorino and Mammolo. Rosso di Montepulciano DOC is the appellation's second tier: lighter, earlier-drinking, and in Contucci's case aged in stainless steel rather than oak, giving it a brighter, more immediately accessible character than its elder sibling.
The vineyards sit at altitude, which slows ripening and holds acidity into the fruit. That acidity is what gives Prugnolo Gentile its frame and its ability to carry several years of ageing without losing freshness.
Soil And Site
The Contucci vineyards are spread across different parts of the Montepulciano appellation. The soils are primarily pliocene in origin, a mix of clay and sand deposited in the geological period when much of this part of central Italy was still covered by an inland sea. Clay retains moisture and contributes body; sand drains freely and lends the wines a lighter touch on the finish. The Rosso di Montepulciano grapes come from a single vineyard in the southern part of the appellation near Pieve Sant'Albino. The Vino Nobile draws from three mature sites in different parts of Montepulciano, and blending across those sites is part of how the estate achieves consistency from year to year.
Story
The Contucci family was cultivating grapes here by the 11th century. That places their viticultural presence in Montepulciano roughly contemporaneous with the construction of the town walls that still surround their cellars today. The connection between the family and the town was never simply agricultural: by the 16th century they had built a mansion at the centre of Montepulciano, designed by Antonio Sangallo the Elder, decorated with frescoes by Andrea Pozzo, and substantial enough to receive papal guests.
The Consorzio del Vino Nobile di Montepulciano was founded in 1965 and now counts approximately 270 members, of which 78 are bottlers. The estate's choices have remained consistent across that period: local varieties only, large-barrel ageing for the Vino Nobile, no concession to international grapes or the smaller barrique style that became fashionable in Tuscany during the 1980s and 1990s. What emerged from that consistency is a range that reads as a direct continuation of how the appellation was farmed before wine fashion arrived.
Vineyards And Cellar
Contucci grows no international varieties. Every vine on the estate is a traditional Tuscan grape: Prugnolo Gentile, Canaiolo Nero, Mammolo, Colorino, Trebbiano Toscano, Malvasìa del Chianti, and Grechetto. The estate's vineyards contain only these local varieties.
In the cellar, the Vino Nobile is aged two years in large oak botti ranging from 9 to 25 hectoliters, racked twice each year, then moved to concrete tank before bottle maturation. Large botti impart far less flavour than smaller barrique casks. The oak's job here is slow oxygen exchange, which softens tannin and allows the wine's dark fruit and earthy notes to develop without acquiring the vanilla or toast character that smaller barrels introduce. The Rosso di Montepulciano bypasses oak entirely: fermented and aged in stainless steel, it preserves primary fruit and goes to bottle earlier.
Wines
The Rosso di Montepulciano 2023 is 80% Prugnolo Gentile, 15% Canaiolo Nero, and 5% Colorino from a single vineyard near Pieve Sant'Albino in the south of the appellation. Entirely stainless steel, it carries bright red fruit, light tannin, and the kind of direct acidity. It is not a simplified version of the Vino Nobile; it is a different wine, built for earlier drinking and a fresher register.
The Vino Nobile di Montepulciano 2020 is the main event: 80% Prugnolo Gentile with Colorino and Mammolo from three mature vineyard sites across different parts of the appellation. Two years in large oak botti, two rackings per year, then concrete and bottle. The wine arrives with a fuller body than the Rosso, a tannic frame that has been softened but not dissolved by the oak, and the classic Prugnolo Gentile character of dark cherry, dried tobacco, leather, and underbrush. Good balance at medium-plus weight, with the acidity to develop over several more years.
In The Glass
The Vino Nobile 2020 opens with dark red fruit, dried cherry, and tobacco, then moves into leather and forest floor. On the palate it is suave on entry, with concentrated flavours building through the mid-palate. The tannins are present but rounded by the botti ageing; they grip without hardening. The acidity runs through the wine from front to back, holding everything upright and keeping the finish clean and defined. Oak character is minimal: no vanilla, no toast, only the slight softening that comes from two years of slow oxygen exchange in large barrels. The finish lingers on earthy, tobacco-edged fruit. This is Prugnolo Gentile at altitude in its traditional form.
A Bottle To Understand It
Start with the Rosso di Montepulciano. The 2023 is 80% Prugnolo Gentile, 15% Canaiolo Nero, and 5% Colorino, all from the Pieve Sant'Albino vineyard in the south of the appellation, aged entirely in stainless steel. It is lighter than the Vino Nobile, with brighter fruit and no oak influence. That directness makes it the clearest introduction to what Prugnolo Gentile actually tastes like before large-barrel ageing adds depth and complexity: fresh red cherry, firm acidity, light tannin, and a clean finish. It also shows what the appellation produces at its most accessible and food-friendly. Once you know the Rosso, the Vino Nobile makes immediate sense as the same grape with two more years of work behind it.
Anecdote
The Contucci cellars sit inside the medieval walls of Montepulciano itself. When the town's defensive fortifications were built between the 11th and 13th centuries, the internal wall structures were cut from the same tufa and pietra serena that runs through the hill. The Contucci family eventually took over sections of that fortification as working wine space, leaving the stone vaulting and the thick walls intact. The cellars that now hold botti of Vino Nobile ageing through their two-year oak contact were designed to stop armies, not to store wine. The temperature stays stable because medieval military engineers built for permanence, not because anyone planned it that way. Barrels sit in rooms where the walls are five centuries older than any wine in them.
Final Word
Contucci is a straightforward argument for traditional Vino Nobile. Long history, local grapes only, large-barrel ageing, consistent range. The Rosso shows where the appellation starts; the Vino Nobile shows where it goes.
Sources
- https://www.contucci.it/en/winery/
- https://www.consorziovinonobile.it/history-activities/
- https://i-winereview.com/blog/index.php/2025/03/24/contucci-historic-vino-nobile-di-montepulciano/