Italy · Chianti Hills

Tenute Piccini

Fourth-generation Tuscan family group with five organically farmed estates spanning Chianti Classico, Brunello di Montalcino, Bolgheri, Aglianico del Vulture and Etna, still wholly family-owned after 140 years.

The producer

Angiolo Piccini bought seven hectares at Poggibonsi in 1882 and started selling wine. A century and a half later, the same family controls more than 200 hectares across five separately managed properties in Tuscany, Sicily and Basilicata, and has not sold a share to outside investors. Mario Piccini, the fourth generation, runs the group as president and CEO, with oenologists Alessio Ciomei and Pasquale Presutto overseeing production across estates that range from the galestro soils of Chianti Classico to the black lava of Etna.

Each property is tied to a specific appellation and grape: Valiano in Castelnuovo Berardenga for Chianti Classico, Villa al Cortile in Montalcino for Brunello, Tenuta Moraia in the Maremma for Bolgheri blends, Regio Cantina in Basilicata for Aglianico del Vulture, and Torre Mora on Etna for Nerello Mascalese and Carricante. All five are organically farmed. The entry point for most buyers is the Collezione Oro Chianti Riserva DOCG, a Sangiovese-led wine with dark cherry, blackberry, vanilla and dry spice that puts the Piccini family's Tuscan roots in a single affordable bottle.

Known for

Sangiovese-led Chianti Classico and Brunello di Montalcino; Bolgheri blends; Aglianico del Vulture; Etna native varieties Nerello Mascalese and Carricante.

Notable facts

The story

Seven Hectares to Nine Figures

In 2023, Mario Piccini moved the company into a new headquarters of 18,000 square metres at the same moment that annual turnover crossed 154 million euros, more than double what it had been just three years earlier. The company also acquired a 35 per cent stake in Vinicola Cide, a Prosecco bottler in Treviso, extending the family's reach from its Tuscan base all the way to the Veneto. None of it had required selling a share of the business. Angiolo Piccini had started at Poggibonsi in 1882 with seven hectares and a local market. His great-grandson was running a nine-figure wine business across five estates and two volcanic islands, still under the same family name.

From the atlas

Tenute Piccini

At A Glance

Founded: 1882, Poggibonsi, Tuscany Generation: Fourth (Mario Piccini, president and CEO) Estates: Five organically farmed properties Key appellations: Chianti Classico, Brunello di Montalcino, Bolgheri, Aglianico del Vulture, Etna DOC Core grape: Sangiovese, with Nerello Mascalese, Carricante and Aglianico del Vulture in the south Entry bottle: 2022 Collezione Oro Chianti Riserva DOCG

The Producer

In 1882, Angiolo Piccini bought seven hectares of vineyard at Poggibonsi, a town in the hills of central Tuscany between Siena and Florence. He started selling wine. A century and a half later, the same family controls more than 200 hectares across five separately managed properties in Tuscany, Sicily and Basilicata, and has not sold a share of the company to outside investors. Mario Piccini, the fourth generation, runs the group as president and CEO alongside oenologists Alessio Ciomei and Pasquale Presutto.

The scale is unusual for a family firm. Turnover rose from 63.3 million euros in 2020 to 154.3 million euros in 2023, a pace that pushed the company into a new 18,000-square-metre headquarters and into a 35 per cent stake in Vinicola Cide, a Prosecco bottler in Treviso. The wines, though, are made estate by estate, each property tied to a specific appellation and grape. The organically farmed philosophy runs across all five properties.

Place

Poggibonsi sits in the Val d'Elsa, just outside the Chianti Classico zone. The founding address matters less today than the network of properties the family has assembled since. Valiano, in Castelnuovo Berardenga at the southern end of Chianti Classico, is where the family makes its premium Sangiovese-based reds under the Chianti Classico DOCG rules. Castelnuovo Berardenga is the warmest and most southerly of the Chianti Classico communes, giving wines with darker fruit and fuller body than those from cooler northern villages like Panzano or Greve.

Villa al Cortile is in Montalcino, the hilltop town south of Siena where Sangiovese Grosso, locally called Brunello, produces some of Italy's longest-lived reds. Tenuta Moraia sits in the Maremma coastal strip, with its heart in Bolgheri, the appellation where Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc arrived in the 1970s and rewrote expectations for Tuscan wine. The two southern estates extend the map further: Regio Cantina in Basilicata grows Aglianico del Vulture on the volcanic soils of Monte Vulture, and Torre Mora farms Nerello Mascalese and Carricante on the slopes of Etna in Sicily.

Soil And Site

The five estates sit on soils shaped by their distinct geological settings. Castelnuovo Berardenga, home to Valiano, is built on galestro, the crumbly schist-like rock common across Chianti Classico, and alberese, a compact clay-limestone mix that holds moisture and gives Sangiovese its firm acidity and tannin. Montalcino, where Villa al Cortile produces Brunello, sits on tuffaceous clay and limestone at elevations that slow ripening and preserve the long-acid character that allows Brunello to age for decades.

The Maremma coast at Tenuta Moraia brings sandy and clay-rich soils close to sea level, warm maritime air, and the kind of full, generous ripeness that suits Bordeaux varieties. The two volcanic estates operate on entirely different ground: Monte Vulture in Basilicata is an extinct volcano whose basalt and ash soils give Aglianico del Vulture its mineral grip and tannic depth, while Etna's black lava soils produce Nerello Mascalese with a pale colour, fine tannin and the smoky mineral lift that distinguishes the mountain from the Italian mainland.

Story

Angiolo Piccini started at Poggibonsi in 1882 with seven hectares and a local market. The family spent the following decades expanding within Tuscany, building the Chianti Classico position at Valiano and later acquiring Villa al Cortile in Montalcino. The move into Brunello di Montalcino changed the range's ceiling: Brunello requires 100 per cent Sangiovese Grosso, a minimum of five years' ageing for the standard wine and six for Riserva, and commands prices that announced the family's ambitions beyond everyday Chianti.

The southern expansion came later, as Mario Piccini's leadership took the group from a single-region producer into a national Italian portfolio. Torre Mora on Etna and Regio Cantina in Basilicata brought volcanic grape varieties, Nerello Mascalese and Aglianico del Vulture, that are almost entirely unknown outside Italy, into a family whose name is built on Sangiovese. The move into Bolgheri at Tenuta Moraia added the coastal Bordeaux-varietal wines that the market had come to expect from the Maremma. By 2023, the company was turning over 154.3 million euros a year, was majority exporting, and had moved into a new headquarters while retaining full family ownership.

Vineyards And Cellar

All five Piccini properties are organically farmed, which across more than 200 hectares of Italian landscape means adapting organic protocols to soils and climates that range from Chianti Classico galestro to Etna lava. Organic farming at this scale is a commitment to vineyard health over chemical correction: it tends to produce lower yields, more concentrated fruit, and grapes that carry the character of their soil rather than being levelled by synthetic inputs.

Beyond the broad organic claim, the cellar practices at each estate are specific to their appellation. Brunello di Montalcino requires extended ageing, at least two years in oak and further time in bottle before release, and this shapes Villa al Cortile's output as wines made to develop over many years. Chianti Classico at Valiano is made from Sangiovese with permitted blending varieties, and the Riserva designation requires a minimum of two years' ageing before release, including at least three months in bottle. The Bolgheri wines at Tenuta Moraia follow the Maremma tradition of oak-matured, Cabernet-dominant blends.

Wines

The range divides into two tiers. The estate appellation wines, made at each property for their specific denominations, sit at the top: Chianti Classico from Valiano, Brunello di Montalcino from Villa al Cortile, Bolgheri wines from Tenuta Moraia, Aglianico del Vulture from Regio Cantina, and Etna DOC wines from Torre Mora. These are single-origin bottles with appellation rules defining the grape, the ageing and the style.

The Collezione and Piccini 1882 lines reach broader markets. The Collezione Oro Chianti Riserva DOCG is the widest-distributed entry: Sangiovese-led, with other permitted varieties in the blend, carrying a DOCG designation that requires two-year minimum ageing. The nose is blackberry, vanilla and spice; the body is firm and dark-fruited. The Collezione Privata Toscana IGT is a different construction: 50 per cent Sangiovese combined with 35 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon, 13 per cent Merlot and 2 per cent Cabernet Franc, making it a Bordeaux-influenced Tuscan blend rather than a pure Sangiovese wine. The IGT designation frees the blend from appellation grape rules. It shows plum, cocoa, sage, blackcurrant, dark cherry and coffee, with clear oak character from maturation.

In The Glass

The Collezione Oro Chianti Riserva opens with blackberry and ripe cherry, a thread of vanilla from oak ageing, and a dry spice note that comes from Sangiovese's natural tannin. In the mouth, the acidity is firm and fresh, which is characteristic of Sangiovese from Tuscany: the grape's high natural acid keeps the fruit lifted even when the body is full and the tannin is present. The finish is dry, with the grip and length of a wine that has spent time in oak without being dominated by it.

The Collezione Privata moves in a denser direction. The Cabernet Sauvignon at 35 per cent brings blackcurrant and cassis on the nose, and the Merlot softens the mid-palate into a rounder, plummier texture than Sangiovese alone would give. Cocoa, sage and dark cherry come from the blend's combination of oak maturation and the layered fruit character of three varieties working together. Coffee notes on the finish indicate a wine that has spent meaningful time in oak. Compared with the Chianti Riserva, the Privata is fuller, less angular and less driven by Sangiovese's bright acidity.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with the 2022 Collezione Oro Chianti Riserva DOCG. It is Sangiovese-led under the rules of Chianti Riserva, aged for a minimum of two years before release, and shaped by the DOCG's requirements for its appellation, grape and style. The wine shows dark cherry and blackberry against a dry, firm acidity that is the signature of good Tuscan Sangiovese. The tannin is present without being coarse. The oak gives vanilla and spice but does not mask the fruit. It is an accessible price, widely distributed, and directly connected to the family's Tuscan roots in a way the southern-estate bottles cannot be.

Anecdote

In 2023, Mario Piccini stood in the new Piccini 1882 headquarters, a building of 18,000 square metres that the family had moved into while simultaneously reporting annual turnover of 154.3 million euros, compared with 63.3 million just three years earlier. The same year, the company took a 35 per cent stake in Vinicola Cide, a Prosecco bottler in Treviso, pushing the family's reach from its Tuscan base all the way to the Veneto. All of this growth had happened without a single share of the company changing hands outside the Piccini family. Angiolo Piccini had bought seven hectares at Poggibonsi in 1882. His great-grandson was running a nine-figure wine business, across five estates and two Italian volcanic islands, under the same family name.

Final Word

Tenute Piccini is a Tuscan family wine group that operates at a scale unusual for a company that has never taken outside investment. The five estates cover the breadth of serious Italian wine: Chianti Classico, Brunello di Montalcino, Bolgheri, Aglianico del Vulture and Etna. The Collezione Oro Chianti Riserva is the clearest way in, and the estate wines at Valiano and Villa al Cortile are where the group's Sangiovese ambitions are most fully realised.

Sources

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