From the atlas
Casa Vinicola Luigi Cecchi
At A Glance
- Founded: 1893
- Based: Castellina in Chianti, Siena, Tuscany
- Appellation: Chianti Classico (home); also Maremma, Montalcino, Montefalco (Umbria)
- Estates: Five (four in Tuscany, one in Umbria)
- Generation: Fourth (Andrea Cecchi)
- Flagship: Chianti Classico Riserva di Famiglia, 90% Sangiovese
- Cellar: Barriques and tonneaux; organic farming at Tenuta Alzatura
The Producer
Casa Vinicola Luigi Cecchi began as a merchant enterprise. Luigi Cecchi, described by his own family as a wine enthusiast and expert taster, laid the company's foundations in 1893. For decades the business stayed in trade: buying, blending, selling. Then the third generation changed what it was.
In the early 1960s, a second Luigi took the family into the land. He purchased Villa Cerna in Castellina in Chianti, at the heart of the Chianti Classico appellation, and built a winery amid 80 hectares of vineyards. A merchant house had become an estate. That decision gave the company its character, and Chianti Classico has been its home appellation ever since.
Andrea Cecchi now leads the fourth generation from the same Castellina in Chianti base. The company operates five estates across Tuscany and Umbria. The flaghip wine, Chianti Classico Riserva di Famiglia, is built on Sangiovese from those Chianti Classico vineyards.
Place
Castellina in Chianti sits near the western edge of the Chianti Classico zone, the legally defined sub-region within Chianti that runs between Florence and Siena in central Tuscany. Chianti Classico is Sangiovese country: the appellation requires Sangiovese as the dominant grape and places strict limits on non-native varieties in its top-tier wines. Castellina lies at elevation, with vineyards spread across the hills above the Elsa and Arbia valleys. The altitude moderates summer heat and preserves the acidity that keeps Chianti Classico alive in the glass.
The Cecchi portfolio extends well beyond Castellina. Maremma, along Tuscany's southern coast, came in 1996 with 25 hectares. Montalcino, home of Brunello, arrived with the 2018 acquisition of six hectares at Aminta in Castelnuovo dell'Abate. Across the regional border in Umbria, Tenuta Alzatura in Montefalco farms native varieties under organic certification. Each address adds a distinct appellation and climate to the family range.
Soil And Site
Villa Cerna sits within 80 hectares of Chianti Classico vineyards in Castellina, the working heart of the Cecchi operation. Castellina in Chianti occupies elevated terrain where thin soils over galestro (friable schist) and alberese (hard clay-limestone mix) are common across the zone. These soils drain well and stress the vine, concentrating fruit while retaining enough mineral character to keep the wine from turning heavy. Specific soil mapping for Cecchi's Villa Cerna parcels is not publicly documented, but the address places the vineyards squarely in Chianti Classico's classic geological mix.
Clone selection and close attention to vineyard care are stated priorities across all five estates. At Tenuta Alzatura in Montefalco, the farming is certified organic.
Story
The arc from 1893 to the present is a slow conversion from trade to land. Luigi Cecchi built a wine merchant business. His descendants kept it in the family, generation by generation, until the company arrived at its defining moment in the early 1960s: the purchase of Villa Cerna and the commitment to grow as well as sell.
From that Chianti Classico anchor, each subsequent generation has added territory. The Maremma vineyards came in 1996, opening a coastal Tuscany address and a different palette of sun and sea air. Tenuta Alzatura in Montefalco followed in the late 1990s, the only estate outside Tuscany, farming native Umbrian varieties organically. Villa Rosa, a historic Chianti Classico estate, joined in 2015, deepening the family's presence in the appellation. Aminta in Montalcino arrived in 2018 with six hectares in Castelnuovo dell'Abate, giving the family a foothold in Brunello country.
Andrea Cecchi now holds together a company that spans two Italian regions, five estates, and over a century of family winemaking. The Chianti Classico range, led by the Riserva di Famiglia, remains the editorial and commercial centre.
Vineyards And Cellar
Across the five estates, the family names vineyard care and clone selection as its primary priorities. Clone work in Sangiovese matters: different selections produce fruit with meaningfully different acidity levels, tannin grain, and colour depth, and the Chianti Classico zone has access to a wide range of locally adapted material. Good clone selection is slow work, and its payoff shows up in the consistency and character of the wine over time.
The Riserva di Famiglia is the window into Cecchi's cellar practice. The 2022 vintage is 90% Sangiovese and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, aged 12 months in barriques and tonneaux before at least three months in bottle. Barriques (225-litre barrels) give more wood contact per litre and add tannin and oxygen; tonneaux (500-litre barrels) moderate that contact and allow slower, gentler development. The combination is a common approach in Chianti Classico Riserva production: enough oak to age and integrate the wine, not enough to cover the Sangiovese fruit.
Tenuta Alzatura in Montefalco farms organically, with no synthetic pesticides or herbicides. The Umbrian range draws on native varieties rather than Sangiovese.
Wines
The Cecchi range is organised by estate and appellation. At its centre is the Chianti Classico line from Villa Cerna and Villa Rosa, with the Riserva di Famiglia as the confirmed flagship. That wine is 90% Sangiovese, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, matured in barriques and tonneaux. It sits at the Riserva tier within Chianti Classico, which requires extended ageing beyond the standard annata wines and tends to show more weight and complexity in the glass. The small Cabernet component adds body and colour to the Sangiovese base without pulling the wine toward an international style.
Beyond Chianti Classico, Cecchi holds appellations across two regions. Maremma delivers a different climate: warmer, coastal, with fuller-bodied red wines and riper fruit than the Chianti hills. Aminta in Montalcino grows in the shadow of Brunello, one of Italy's most demanding red wine appellations. Tenuta Alzatura in Montefalco produces native Umbrian varieties organically, a range separate in character and grape from the Tuscan operation.
Specific named cuvées below the Riserva di Famiglia are not documented in the confirmed source set. The range architecture implies tiered bottlings across appellations, but the entry-level and single-estate labelling outside the flagship are not detailed here.
In The Glass
The Chianti Classico Riserva di Famiglia opens with dark cherry and dried earth, then moves toward tobacco and dried herb as it settles in the glass. Sangiovese carries naturally high acidity, and that acid line is present through the mid-palate, keeping the fruit from feeling heavy. The tannins are firm but fine-grained, the kind that come from ripe Sangiovese and a year in barrel: present enough to give the wine grip and ageing potential, not so prominent as to make the wine hard. The 10% Cabernet Sauvignon adds a layer of body and colour depth that rounds the Sangiovese's angular edges. The finish is long, dry, and herb-tinged.
A mature vintage reviewed by Wine Enthusiast showed the same dark fruit and earthiness persisting with time, the tannins softening and the flavour register shifting further toward tobacco and leather. The wine develops. Bottles drunk young are complete but firmer; bottles with a few years of ageing open into something more composed.
A Bottle To Understand It
Start with the Chianti Classico Riserva di Famiglia. It is 90% Sangiovese from the Castellina in Chianti vineyards, blended with 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, aged 12 months in barriques and tonneaux and then rested in bottle before release. In the glass it is dry, firm and savoury: dark cherry and earth on the nose, structured tannin in the mouth, a long finish of herb and dried fruit. It sits at the Riserva level in Chianti Classico, which means it carries more weight and depth than the entry annata wines and is built to age. Drink it now with food, particularly red meat and aged cheese, or hold it for five years and find something more rounded. No other bottle in the range captures the Castellina in Chianti address, the Sangiovese backbone, and the family's cellar approach as directly.
Anecdote
Luigi Cecchi founded his wine enterprise in 1893. Sixty years on, his grandson, also named Luigi, looked at what the family had built and decided a merchant's book of contacts was not enough. In the early 1960s he found Villa Cerna in Castellina in Chianti, bought it, and set about building a winery in the middle of 80 hectares of Chianti Classico vines. The family had spent two generations buying and selling other people's wine. Now they had their own land, their own harvest, and their own address in the appellation. Villa Cerna has been the working centre of the Cecchi operation ever since, and the Riserva di Famiglia, the family's flagship, is made from its fruit.
Final Word
Casa Vinicola Luigi Cecchi is a company built twice: first as a merchant house in 1893, then as a Chianti Classico estate in the 1960s. The five-estate portfolio reflects a fourth generation's appetite for new appellations, but the Riserva di Famiglia, made from Sangiovese grown in Castellina in Chianti, remains the clearest line back to that original land purchase. Buy it at the Riserva level and you are drinking a wine shaped by six decades of commitment to one hill.
Sources
- https://www.cecchi.net/en/
- https://www.cecchi.net/en/about-us/history
- https://www.cecchi.net/en/estates
- https://www.famigliacecchi.it/en
- https://www.tannico.it/products/chianti-classico-riserva-docg-riserva-di-famiglia-2022-cecchi
- https://www.awsm.ca/en/catalogue/nat/casa-cecchi-1651124/riserva-di-famiglia-chianti-classico-1715597/2021
- https://www.wineenthusiast.com/buying-guide/cecchi-2017-riserva-di-famiglia-chianti-classico/