Italy · Chianti Hills

Casa Vinicola Alberto Bartali

A Tuscan family estate founded in 1927 near the medieval hill-town of Monteriggioni, producing Chianti, Chianti Classico, Brunello di Montalcino, and Vernaccia di San Gimignano from its own farming estates.

The producer

Alberto Bartali and his wife Leda Pucci founded the estate on the slopes below Monteriggioni in 1927, on terrain the medieval tower-ringed town has looked over for seven centuries. What began as a local wine concern is now a four-generation Tuscan operation with two farming estates, a modern bottling facility, and an export network reaching five continents. The winery holds over 18,000 hectolitres and runs at a potential capacity of more than 2.5 million bottles per year. That scale shapes everything: this is a commercially organised producer with a rational bottling line, not a small family domaine. The family still farms its own land and still carries the founding name on every label.

The range maps four Tuscan appellations in sequence. Campinoti, the 80-hectare estate that Rivo Bartali bought in 1968, sits near San Gimignano and carries 15 hectares of vineyards inside the Vernaccia di San Gimignano appellation, giving the family a dry white grape with a distinct bitter almond finish alongside their Sangiovese-led reds. Villa Casone, acquired in 1976, adds another 80 hectares in the Monteriggioni area. Filippo, Linda and Andrea now run the business as the fourth generation.

Known for

Commercially scaled Tuscan range across four appellations: Chianti, Chianti Classico, Brunello di Montalcino, and Vernaccia di San Gimignano from estate-owned vineyards at Campinoti near San Gimignano.

Notable facts

The story

The San Gimignano Estate

In 1968, Rivo Bartali drove out to a farming estate near San Gimignano and bought it. The property was called Campinoti: 80 hectares of land, 15 of them planted with vines facing the medieval towers of San Gimignano on the horizon. Rivo's parents had founded the winery near Monteriggioni forty-one years earlier and had never owned land this far north. The Campinoti vineyards sat inside the Vernaccia di San Gimignano appellation, which meant the family now grew a white grape with its own denomination and its own distinct character: dry, fresh, with a bitter almond finish that no Sangiovese farming in Chianti country could replicate. The purchase added a second grape, a second geography, and a wine that a buyer looking for Tuscan white still finds on the list today.

From the atlas

Casa Vinicola Alberto Bartali

At A Glance

The Producer

Alberto Bartali and his wife Leda Pucci planted their first vines on the slopes below Monteriggioni in 1927, on a hilltop that the medieval tower-ringed town had looked out over for seven centuries. What they started as a local concern is now a four-generation Tuscan operation that ships wine across five continents, with two farming estates and a bottling facility capable of filling 2.5 million bottles in a year.

That scale is the first thing to understand, because it shapes everything else. Casa Vinicola Alberto Bartali is a commercially organised producer, not a small family domaine. The bottling line is modern and rational. The winery holds over 18,000 hectolitres. And yet the family still farms its own land, still draws the Vernaccia di San Gimignano from vines the Bartali family acquired in 1968, and still carries the founding name on every label.

Four generations have run the business in sequence. Rivo, son of the founders, expanded the estate and built it toward the export market. His children Alberto, Wanda, Maria and Wanda's husband Marco consolidated the range and the infrastructure through the decades that followed. Today, Filippo, Linda and Andrea carry the name forward.

Place

Monteriggioni sits on a low hill in the province of Siena, roughly midway between Florence and Siena, inside the broader Chianti zone that covers much of central Tuscany. The town sits inside the Chianti Classico denomination's outer boundary, which gives the Bartali Chianti Classico its appellation standing and its Sangiovese-only grape requirement.

The family's two farming estates reach across two distinct Tuscan geographies. Villa Casone is in the Monteriggioni area, close to the winery base. Campinoti lies roughly 30 kilometres northwest, in the San Gimignano zone, where the gentle hills facing the tower-town support the Vernaccia di San Gimignano appellation. That appellation is built on a single white grape, Vernaccia, grown in the sandy and clay soils around San Gimignano, and it produces a dry white with a characteristic bitter almond finish. The Campinoti vineyards face San Gimignano directly, and the 15 hectares there make both the Vernaccia and a portion of Chianti.

The third geographic anchor is Montalcino, a hilltop town about 60 kilometres south of Siena. Brunello di Montalcino, the appellation named after the town, requires 100% Sangiovese grown within the municipal boundaries and a minimum of five years from harvest to market, including at least two years in oak cask. Bartali's Brunello carries the full weight of that ageing calendar.

Soil And Site

The Campinoti estate covers 80 hectares with 15 planted to vine, oriented toward San Gimignano on terrain that is typical of the area: gently rolling land with clay and sandy soils that drain well and concentrate the Vernaccia grape without excess weight. The remaining land at Campinoti carries 250 olive trees, cropland and woodland, making it a working mixed-farming estate.

Villa Casone runs to another 80 hectares of woodland and cropland. The soils across the Monteriggioni area vary between stony clay and limestone-influenced ground, conditions that support the Sangiovese varieties at the heart of Chianti and Chianti Classico.

Story

Rivo Bartali took over from his parents in the years after the Second World War and saw the business differently from the generation before him. In 1968, he bought the Campinoti farming estate, 80 hectares near San Gimignano, adding 15 hectares of vineyards and a direct connection to the Vernaccia di San Gimignano appellation. Eight years later, in 1976, the family acquired Villa Casone, formerly the country seat of the Counts Terrosi Vagnoli, adding another 80 hectares to the estate.

Both acquisitions mattered beyond acreage. Campinoti gave the Bartali range a white wine tied to a specific place, grown on estate land facing one of Tuscany's most recognised hilltowns. Villa Casone expanded the farming footprint in the core Chianti country where the winery sits.

By the 1980s, Rivo's generation had turned the business outward toward international markets, building the export infrastructure that now sends Bartali wine to five continents. The range grew to reflect the full ladder of Tuscan red appellations, from everyday Chianti to Brunello di Montalcino, giving the family wines at every price tier in the market they were building.

Vineyards And Cellar

At Campinoti, the Vernaccia di San Gimignano grapes are soft-pressed immediately after harvest in mid-September, then fermented in stainless steel at 16°C to preserve the grape's aromatic character. The wine rests on fine lees for three to four months, which adds a slight weight to the palate without altering the crisp, dry profile. The wine matures for three to four months on fine lees. The aromas are floral and fruity, the palate fresh and dry, and the finish carries the bitter almond note typical of Vernaccia.

The Chianti DOCG blends 80% Sangiovese with 20% Canaiolo, ferments at 28°C with twice-daily pump-overs, rests one to two months on lees, and reaches bottle roughly six months after harvest. The Chianti Classico is 100% Sangiovese with approximately 20 days of skin contact, malolactic conversion, and four to six months on lees before bottling at 18 to 20 months post-harvest, releasing some four months later. The extended skin contact builds tannin and deepens colour; the extra lees time rounds the mid-palate.

The Brunello follows a longer calendar. Sangiovese from the Brunello clone is hand-selected at harvest in late September to early October, macerated three to four weeks with three daily pump-overs, then moved to oak cask for a minimum of 24 months. The wine reaches market approximately five years after harvest, by which point the oak and the grape have merged into the dry, warm, robust profile the appellation requires.

Wines

The Bartali range covers four appellations and one full arc of Tuscan wine: a fresh everyday red, a serious mid-tier Sangiovese, a prestige Brunello, and a dry white from an estate vineyard.

Bartali Chianti DOCG is the entry point: 80% Sangiovese and 20% Canaiolo, bright ruby in colour, with fresh fruit aromas and a round, harmonious palate. It is bottled in multiple formats including the traditional straw-covered fiasco as well as standard 750ml, 375ml and 1.5-litre magnum. Light enough to serve with a wide range of dishes and released quickly, around six months from harvest.

Alberto Bartali Chianti Classico DOCG steps into the denomination's more demanding production rules: 100% Sangiovese, 20 days on skins, and roughly two years from harvest to release. Deep ruby with cherry and mild spice aromas, dry tannin on the palate that softens with age, and enough weight that the producer recommends decanting for 30 minutes before serving.

Bartali Brunello di Montalcino DOCG is 100% Sangiovese (Brunello clone), matured for at least 24 months in oak cask and held five years from harvest to market. Deep ruby shifting toward garnet, with aromas described as slightly ethereal and intensifying in the glass, and a palate that is dry, warm and lively with the firm backbone the Brunello production rules are designed to produce.

Bartali Vernaccia di San Gimignano DOCG is 100% Vernaccia from the Campinoti estate, stainless-steel fermented at 16°C and aged three to four months on fine lees. Light straw yellow, with an intense floral and fruity bouquet, a dry and fresh palate, and the bitter almond finish that marks the Vernaccia grape.

In The Glass

Sangiovese runs through three of the four wines and expresses itself differently at each level of the range. In the Chianti, where Canaiolo softens the blend and time to bottle is short, the wine is light-bodied and fresh, with red fruit aromas and a round, easy palate that loses nothing from being served young. In the Chianti Classico, 100% Sangiovese and twenty days of skin contact produce a deeper colour and a firmer tannin grip. Cherry and spice come through on the nose; the palate is dry and noticeable on texture, with the producer's own note that the wine becomes smooth with age.

The Brunello is the same grape, in the same region's broader geography, shaped by a different calendar. Twenty-four months in oak cask alters the fruit profile: aromas shift from primary red fruit toward something the producer describes as slightly ethereal before intensifying in the glass. The palate is dry, warm and robust with a lively edge that reflects the long maceration and the time the wine has had to integrate.

The Vernaccia di San Gimignano moves in a different direction entirely. At 16°C fermentation in stainless steel, nothing aromatic is cooked away: the bouquet is floral and fruity, the palate fresh and dry, and the finish carries the grape's signature bitter almond note, clean and distinct.

A Bottle To Understand It

The Alberto Bartali Chianti Classico DOCG is the bottle that shows what the estate is doing with Sangiovese at its most committed level short of Brunello. It is 100% Sangiovese from the Chianti Classico denomination, with 20 days of skin contact for tannin depth, malolactic conversion for roundness, and a release schedule that puts nearly two years between harvest and market. The aromas run to cherry and mild spice; the palate is dry with firm tannin that the wine has already begun to resolve by the time it reaches the shelf. Decant it for 30 minutes and serve at 18 to 20 degrees. It carries enough weight to sit alongside roasted meat and aged pecorino, and enough forward fruit to be approachable without years of cellaring.

Anecdote

In 1968, Rivo Bartali drove out to a farming estate near San Gimignano and bought it. The property was called Campinoti: 80 hectares of land, 15 of them planted with vines facing the medieval towers of San Gimignano on the horizon. Rivo's parents had founded the winery near Monteriggioni forty-one years earlier and had never owned land this far north. The Campinoti vineyards sat inside the Vernaccia di San Gimignano appellation, which meant the family now grew a white grape with its own denomination and its own distinct character: dry, fresh, with a bitter almond finish that no amount of Sangiovese farming in Chianti country could replicate. The purchase added a second grape, a second geography, and a wine that a buyer looking for Tuscan white still finds on the list today.

Final Word

Casa Vinicola Alberto Bartali operates at a scale that puts it in a different category from single-domaine artisan producers, but the family estate logic still runs through the range. Four appellations, two farming properties, four generations, and one founding address in Monteriggioni. The Vernaccia di San Gimignano is a white wine made from estate grapes in a specific place; the Brunello carries five years of production commitment before it leaves the winery. For a buyer who wants a Tuscan range with traceable geography behind the label, the bottles offer a clear path from entry-level Chianti to a long-aged Brunello.

Sources

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