Italy · Montalcino

Castello Romitorio

A Brunello di Montalcino estate founded in 1984 by Transavanguardia painter Sandro Chia, who bought a ruined medieval castle on the northwestern Montalcino ridge and planted 100% Sangiovese. His son Filippo joined in 2005 and renewed the winemaking. Every bottle carries Sandro's own artwork.

The producer

In 1984 an Italian painter bought a ruined medieval castle on the northwestern ridge of Montalcino and planted Sangiovese. Sandro Chia was one of the Transavanguardia painters who had reshaped Italian contemporary art in the late 1970s, and he wanted a home and a studio, not an appellation project. The castle came with vineyards, holm-oak woods and heathland, so he chose the grape that the Brunello di Montalcino DOCG is built around and began farming the hill's northwestern face from 200 to 400 metres. He needed labels, so he put his own paintings on them. That practical decision made the estate immediately recognisable: bold figurative canvases on every tier of the range, from the Colto Rosso di Montalcino up to the Brunello Riserva.

In 2005 Sandro's son Filippo joined the estate and a new cellar opened in the same year, beginning a significant renewal of the winemaking approach. The original 1984 Sangiovese plantings still supply roughly half the estate's fruit, older vines carrying more concentration and a longer aromatic profile than younger blocks. Those historic vines are the source for Filo di Seta, the estate's most site-specific Brunello, which undergoes extended maceration and a longer wood and bottle ageing programme before release. The core Brunello di Montalcino draws from vineyards across the full elevation range of the northwestern ridge, shaped by the galestro, clay and albarese-limestone soils and the cool nights that preserve acidity alongside the dark fruit and firm tannin that Montalcino Sangiovese is known for.

Known for

Brunello di Montalcino from 100% Sangiovese on galestro, clay and albarese-limestone soils at 200 to 400 metres on the northwestern Montalcino ridge, with roughly half the vineyard base supplied by the original 1984 plantings.

Notable facts

The story

The Ruin Sandro Chia Bought

In 1984 Baron Giorgio Franchetti sold a ruined castle on the northwestern slope of Montalcino to an Italian painter named Sandro Chia. Chia was not looking for a winemaking project; he wanted a home and a studio. The castle came with vineyards, holm-oak woods and heathland, so he planted Sangiovese and started farming. He needed labels for the bottles, so he put his own paintings on them. Chia was one of the Transavanguardia painters who had reshaped Italian contemporary art in the late 1970s, and his figurative, energetic canvases had been shown across Europe and the United States. None of that had anything to do with Montalcino. The ruin that Franchetti could not sell to anyone else became, over the following decades, a full-tier Brunello di Montalcino estate, and the paintings Chia placed on the labels as a practical solution still appear on every bottle the estate produces today.

From the atlas

Castello Romitorio

At A Glance

Producer: Castello Romitorio Country: Italy Region: Tuscany Appellation: Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Grape: 100% Sangiovese Key Bottles: Rosso di Montalcino (Colto), Brunello di Montalcino, Filo di Seta Brunello di Montalcino, Brunello di Montalcino Riserva

The Producer

In 1984 an Italian painter bought a ruined medieval castle on the northwestern ridge of Montalcino and planted Sangiovese. Sandro Chia was not looking for an appellation foothold; he wanted a home and a studio. The castle came with vineyards, holm-oak woods and heathland, and Chia began farming what the land already offered, choosing the grape that the Brunello di Montalcino DOCG is built around: 100% Sangiovese, grown from 200 to 400 metres on the hill's northwestern face.

Chia put his own art on the labels from the beginning. His Transavanguardia paintings, bold and figurative, appear on every bottle the estate produces. That decision was practical before it became iconic: he needed a label and drew from what was at hand. Four decades on, the artwork still marks every tier of the range.

In 2005 Sandro's son Filippo joined the company and the estate opened a new cellar in the same year, beginning a significant renewal of the winemaking approach. The wines that Filippo shaped are built from the same Sangiovese vineyards his father planted, with the original 1984 vines supplying roughly half the estate's fruit today.

Place

Montalcino is a hilltop town in southern Tuscany, south of Siena, giving its name to one of Italy's most age-worthy red wine appellations. Brunello di Montalcino DOCG requires 100% Sangiovese, aged for at least five years before release, and the denomination draws its name from the specific clay and limestone soils of the Montalcino hill and the warm, dry southern Tuscan climate moderated by altitude.

Castello Romitorio sits on the northwestern ridge, an exposed position that runs from 200 metres at the lower vineyard plots to 400 metres at the top. The northwestern face of Montalcino receives less direct afternoon heat than the southern and eastern slopes, giving cooler growing conditions that carry through to the wines: Sangiovese from this ridge tends to hold firm acidity and detailed aromatic character alongside the tannin that Montalcino is known for.

The Brunello di Montalcino label on every bottle from Castello Romitorio's Montalcino estate is the DOCG designation, confirming that the wine is 100% Sangiovese and subject to the denomination's ageing rules. The Rosso di Montalcino, the younger tier, carries the DOC version of the same geographic name, aged for a shorter period and intended for earlier drinking.

Soil And Site

The vineyard soils on the northwestern ridge are a combination of galestro, clay and albarese limestone. Galestro is a brittle, schist-like marl common in Tuscany; it drains well, warms quickly in the sun, and tends to concentrate the vines' energy into the fruit rather than vegetative growth. Clay holds moisture through drier summer periods. Albarese is a compact calcium-rich limestone that forces roots deep and contributes to the mineral edge that appears in the finished wines.

The exposed position and elevation produce cool nights through the growing season, creating a diurnal shift between daytime warmth and night-time cold. In Sangiovese, that temperature swing helps retain acidity in the grapes and preserves aromatic detail.

Story

The castle at the centre of the estate has carried many uses across its history. It served first as a temple, then as a fortress and a monastery, then as a castle in the formal sense, then as a manor house, a pastoral shelter for shepherds and flocks, and eventually as an art workshop before Sandro Chia arrived. Baron Giorgio Franchetti sold the ruin to Chia in 1984, and Chia's restoration turned the building into the estate's home and, in time, its working winery.

The first decade was about planting. Chia chose Sangiovese, the indigenous grape of Montalcino, and farmed it across the elevation range of the hill's northwestern face. Those vines, now over forty years old, still supply a substantial share of the estate's fruit and carry the biodiversity that comes from decades of undisturbed growth in varied soils.

In 1999 the estate expanded beyond Montalcino, acquiring Tenuta Ghiaccio Forte in the Scansano area of Grosseto in the coastal Maremma zone, where it produces Morellino di Scansano under a separate denomination. The Montalcino estate remained the primary work.

The clearest turning point came in 2005. Filippo Chia joined the company and the estate opened a new cellar in the same year. Filippo began reshaping the wines and winemaking approach, working from the Sangiovese vineyards his father had planted but pushing toward more defined, plot-aware cellar work. The range that emerged from this period carries the character of the northwestern ridge with a more deliberate hand in the cellar.

Vineyards And Cellar

The estate harvests by hand across all Montalcino plots, with low yields and plot-by-plot selection through the growing season. Working the vineyard parcel by parcel, rather than treating the entire elevation range as a single farming unit, means that fruit from the cooler high plots and the warmer lower plots is tracked and managed separately before decisions are made in the cellar.

The original 1984 plantings account for roughly half the estate's vineyard area. Older Sangiovese vines produce less fruit per vine, but that fruit carries more concentration and a longer aromatic profile than younger plantings. The biodiversity held in four decades of undisturbed rootstock also means that the vines contain a range of clonal material that newer plantings, selected for uniformity, would not carry.

Filo di Seta, the estate's more site-specific Brunello, comes exclusively from these historic vineyards. The wine undergoes full fermentation with extended maceration, passes through malolactic fermentation, and matures in wood before extended bottle ageing before release, a process that builds both the wine's depth and its capacity to develop over time.

The 2005 cellar gave Filippo the infrastructure to work at a different level of care across all tiers of the range, from the Colto Rosso to the Riserva.

Wines

The Montalcino range at Castello Romitorio runs across four tiers, all 100% Sangiovese.

Colto Rosso di Montalcino is the estate's entry-level Montalcino red, carrying the DOC appellation and intended for drinking younger than the Brunello tiers. The Colto bottling is direct: cherry and plum on the nose, balsamic lift, firm acidity and approachable tannin that does not demand years of cellaring before the wine opens up. It is a Montalcino Sangiovese without the weight of the extended ageing rules that govern Brunello.

Brunello di Montalcino is the core DOCG bottle, drawing from vineyards across the northwestern ridge at 200 to 400 metres. The wine carries darker fruit than the Colto, ripe dark cherry and spice with a mineral edge from the galestro soils, chewy Sangiovese tannin and acidity. Appellation rules require a minimum five years ageing before release.

Filo di Seta Brunello di Montalcino takes its name from a small stream running through the wooded hills of the estate and draws exclusively from the original 1984 Sangiovese plantings. Extended maceration during fermentation extracts more colour and tannin from the older-vine fruit, and the extended wood and bottle ageing before release leaves the wine with a more closed, structured profile when young. It is the estate's most specific Brunello: a single vineyard origin, older vines, a longer cellar programme.

Brunello di Montalcino Riserva is the top tier, selected from the best parcels in the best vintages and given additional ageing beyond the standard Brunello requirement. It appears only in years the estate judges strong enough.

In The Glass

Sangiovese from Montalcino's northwestern ridge has a recognisable profile across the range: the fruit opens with dark cherry, some balsamic lift and spice, and the mineral note from the galestro soils comes through on the mid-palate. The tannin in Montalcino Sangiovese is firm and slightly chalky, drying the palate in a way that asks for food or time in the bottle, and the acidity at Castello Romitorio, shaped by the cool-night diurnal shift at altitude, keeps the wines from feeling heavy despite the dark fruit concentration.

The Colto Rosso sits at the lighter, fresher end of this profile: the tannin is approachable, the cherry is direct, and the balsamic edge lifts the finish without demanding years of cellaring. Moving up to the core Brunello, the concentration increases, the tannin becomes more demanding, and the mineral edge sharpens. Filo di Seta, from the oldest vines, shows more grip and darker fruit at release, with the structural depth to continue developing in the bottle for a decade or more. The Riserva, in the years it is made, extends that trajectory further, with additional ageing adding complexity and softening the tannin before the wine reaches the market.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with the Brunello di Montalcino. It is the bottle where the estate's Sangiovese, the northwestern ridge at altitude, and Filippo Chia's cellar work are all present and readable without the extra weight of the extended Riserva programme. In the glass it opens with dark cherry, earthy spice and a mineral thread that comes from the galestro soil underneath the vines. The tannin is firm and chewy in the way that Montalcino Sangiovese always is, but the acidity from the cool-night growing conditions gives the wine enough freshness that it does not feel dense. Drink it with eight to ten years in the bottle, or hold it longer if the vintage was strong. This is Brunello as Castello Romitorio makes it: place-specific, 100% Sangiovese, and shaped by forty years of farming the same hill.

Anecdote

In 1984 Baron Giorgio Franchetti sold a ruined castle on the northwestern slope of Montalcino to an Italian painter named Sandro Chia. Chia was not looking for a winemaking project; he wanted a home and a studio. The castle came with vineyards, holm-oak woods and heathland attached, so he planted Sangiovese and started farming. He needed labels for the bottles, so he put his own paintings on them. Chia was one of the Transavanguardia painters who had reshaped Italian contemporary art in the late 1970s, and his figurative, energetic canvases had been shown across Europe and the United States. None of that had anything to do with Montalcino. The ruin that Franchetti could not sell to anyone else became, over the following decades, a full-tier Brunello di Montalcino estate, and the paintings Chia placed on the labels as a practical solution still appear on every bottle the estate produces today.

Final Word

Castello Romitorio is Sangiovese, place, family and art, carried across four decades on the same northwestern hill. The original 1984 plantings still supply half the estate's fruit. Filippo Chia renewed the cellar work in 2005 and built a range that runs from the approachable Colto Rosso up to the site-specific Filo di Seta and the selective Riserva. The paintings on the labels are Sandro Chia's own.

Sources

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