Tenuta di Argiano

At A Glance

**Location:** Southwestern slope of Montalcino, Siena, Tuscany
**Altitude:** Approximately 350 metres above sea level
**Vineyards:** 60 hectares (42 hectares Sangiovese, 18 hectares Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot)
**Total estate:** 125 hectares including 10 hectares olive groves and woodland
**Core wine:** Brunello di Montalcino DOCG
**Farming:** Organic-regenerative, certified organic (2016-2021 period), carbon neutral, plastic-free
**Certification:** Equalitas since 2024

The Producer

Tenuta di Argiano sits on a plateau on Montalcino's southwestern slope, at 350 metres, with 60 hectares of vineyard and a history in the appellation that runs long enough to have shaped it. When the Consorzio del Brunello di Montalcino formed in 1967, Argiano was among its founding members. Argiano has been a founding member of the Consorzio del Brunello di Montalcino since 1967.

The core wine is Brunello di Montalcino DOCG, made entirely from Sangiovese. Alongside it sits Non Confunditur IGT Toscana, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Petit Verdot with Sangiovese, and a Rosso di Montalcino DOC, the shorter-aged Sangiovese bottling that shares grape sources with the Brunello. Sangiovese covers 42 of the estate's 60 vineyard hectares; the French varieties fill the remainder and have been planted at Argiano for decades.

In December 2023, Wine Spectator named the 2018 Brunello di Montalcino its Wine of the Year.

Place

Montalcino is a hilltop town in the province of Siena, surrounded by the Brunello di Montalcino DOCG, a zone that produces age-worthy Sangiovese from soils and exposures that vary considerably depending on which slope you are standing on. The southwestern face, where Argiano lies, is warmer and drier than the northern and eastern flanks. Less cloud cover from the Tyrrhenian Sea reaches this side; rainfall is lower; the growing season runs hotter. That warmth tends to give southwestern Brunello more fruit weight and a rounder mid-palate compared to the more austere, mineral character often found on the northern and eastern slopes above Sant'Angelo in Colle or toward Castelnuovo dell'Abate.

At 350 metres, Argiano sits above the valley floor heat but below the cooler northern exposures. The altitude moderates the ripening and preserves the acidity that Sangiovese needs to age. DOCG regulations govern the whole appellation: 100% Sangiovese, minimum five years ageing before release (six for Riserva), at least two of those years in oak cask. Argiano's position within that frame is warm-slope Sangiovese held to a long calendar before the bottle leaves the estate.

Soil And Site

In 2013, the new ownership commissioned pedologist Pedro Parra and agronomist Francesco Monari to map the soil stratifications across the estate. The study identified diverse geology beneath the 60 vineyard hectares. The six leading plots in the north-central vineyard sector carry marl-rich soils: a mixture of clay and calcium carbonate that, in Montalcino, tends to produce wines with firm acidity and a mineral backbone. From 2015, Argiano began vinifying and ageing fruit from those six plots separately, treating them as a distinct tier within the Brunello range. The first Vigna del Suolo vintage came from a parcel planted in 1965.

Story

The Villa Bellaria that still stands at the estate's centre was commissioned by the Pecci family from the Sienese architect Baldassarre Peruzzi between 1581 and 1596. Wine was made here across the centuries that followed, and by 1967 the estate had a formal position in the newly organised Brunello consortium.

In 1992, Countess Noemi Marone Cinzano bought Argiano. At that point it covered 20 hectares. She expanded it and, in 1995, worked with enologist Giacomo Tachis on the inaugural vintage of Non Confunditur. Tachis was simultaneously the winemaker behind Sassicaia, the Cabernet Sauvignon-led wine from Bolgheri that had done more than any other bottle to establish the Super Tuscan category internationally. His hand on Argiano's blended wine placed it at the centre of that conversation.

In 2013, a group of international investors acquired the estate. The new ownership moved quickly. That same year, Parra and Monari conducted the soil study. By 2015, the plot-separation programme was running. Between 2016 and 2021, Argiano obtained organic certification, became the first plastic-free winery in Montalcino, and reached carbon neutrality. Equalitas certification followed in 2024. The 2018 vintage, grown through one of the appellation's warmer and more expressive recent seasons, went on to win Wine Spectator's global ranking in December 2023.

Vineyards And Cellar

Argiano farms under an organic-regenerative approach, with the stated goal of returning the vineyard to its natural equilibrium and supporting biodiversity across the 125-hectare estate. Organic certification was awarded in the 2016-2021 period; plastic-free operations and carbon neutrality were achieved in the same window.

The key cellar decision of the post-2013 period is the separate vinification of the six best marl-rich plots in the north-central sector. Ageing these parcels apart from the main Brunello blend allows the estate to draw out the mineral quality and firm acidity that marl tends to produce, rather than folding those parcels into a single unified wine. The 1965 parcel is the oldest and forms the backbone of the Vigna del Suolo bottling. Ageing requirements under DOCG rules shape the cellar calendar: two years minimum in oak cask, five years total before the Brunello can be released.

Wines

The range has four tiers, each with a distinct relationship to Sangiovese and to the Montalcino appellation hierarchy.

Brunello di Montalcino DOCG is the estate Brunello: 100% Sangiovese, sourced from the full vineyard holding and aged to DOCG minimum. At release it carries five years of development behind it, with at least two in oak. The wine has dark fruit, firm tannin, and the acidity to develop further in bottle. Production at the time of the 2013 sale was approximately 120,000 bottles.

Vigna del Suolo is a single-vineyard Brunello from the 1965 parcel, first bottled from the 2015 harvest. It draws on the marl-rich north-central plots that the estate began vinifying separately after the Parra-Monari study. Tighter sourcing and older vines give it more concentration and a longer trajectory than the estate wine.

Rosso di Montalcino DOC is the shorter-aged Sangiovese entry point. DOC regulations require one year of ageing rather than five, so the Rosso releases earlier and drinks sooner. The grape source overlaps with the Brunello, making it a practical way to encounter Argiano's Sangiovese before it has spent years in the cellar.

Non Confunditur IGT Toscana is the Super Tuscan strand: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Petit Verdot with a proportion of Sangiovese, oak-aged and aimed at an earlier drinking window than the Brunello. The first vintage was 1995, made with Giacomo Tachis. The wine carries dark fruit from the Cabernet and Merlot, rounded by oak, with the Sangiovese adding lift to the finish.

In The Glass

The Brunello opens with dark cherry and dried plum, the fruit weight that comes from southwestern-slope warmth in Montalcino. Acidity runs through the mid-palate, keeping the fruit from going heavy, and on the finish the wine holds its shape long after the fruit has faded. Five years of ageing before release means the bottle that reaches your table has already passed through the most angular phase; another five to ten years opens it further.

Non Confunditur reads differently from the first pour: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, and Sangiovese form the blend, and the oak ageing adds a cedar and dark spice note alongside the dark plum fruit. It is broader in the mouth than the Brunello and reaches its window sooner. The Rosso sits between them in weight, sharing the Sangiovese character but without the extended oak and bottle time that turns the Brunello's tannins inward.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with the Brunello di Montalcino DOCG. It is the wine the estate has built around since 1967, drawn entirely from Sangiovese grown on the southwestern slope at 350 metres, and held for five years before release. In the glass it gives dark cherry, firm marl-derived tannin, and a long acid line that carries the finish. It is not a light wine, and it is not built for immediate drinking: it rewards patience and food. But it is the bottle that places Argiano's Sangiovese in its appellation context most clearly, and at this scale and release volume it is the most reliably findable wine in the range.

Anecdote

In December 2023, Wine Spectator published its annual Wine of the Year. The winner was Argiano's 2018 Brunello di Montalcino, chosen from the wines the magazine had reviewed globally across that year. The 2018 growing season in Montalcino ran warm and dry, producing a vintage with more fruit weight and early expressiveness than the cooler years around it. The bottle had been released roughly ten years after the 2013 sale to new ownership: a period that included the Parra-Monari soil study, the separation of the six best plots, the organic-to-carbon-neutral certification run, and the first vintages of Vigna del Suolo. The announcement placed Argiano at the top of a global ranking in a year when Burgundy, the Rhone, and California were all in contention. The wine was a southwestern-slope Sangiovese from a large Montalcino estate, made under DOCG rules that had not changed since the consortium Argiano helped found in 1967.

Final Word

Argiano is a large southwestern-slope estate with a formal position in Brunello's founding history and a recent decade of focused improvement in vineyard, cellar, and certification. The Brunello is the reason to seek it out: 100% Sangiovese, marl-influenced, aged long, and carrying the fruit weight that Montalcino's warmer slope reliably produces. The 2018 Wine of the Year recognition is the clearest recent signal that the post-2013 work has landed in the glass.

At A Glance

The Producer

Place

Soil And Site

Story

Vineyards And Cellar

Wines

In The Glass

A Bottle To Understand It

Anecdote

Final Word

Sources

Where to go next