Story: Badia a Coltibuono | Toskana

The millennial Vallombros Abbey of Coltibuono, whose history dates back to the Etruscans, has belonged since 1846 to the ancestors of the Tuscan banking family Stucchi Prinetti, which combines Swiss, Neapolitan, Tuscan and Milanese origins in a family history that is hard to beat for complexity. The estate, which still covers about 800 hectares even after the sale of large areas, is divided into two parts: The actual property of the abbey with its wooded area in Monti, about 15 kilometers from the monastery. Wine has been bottled here under its own label since the early 1950s, and bottles from that period can still be found in the abbey's tasting room.

Since the early 1980s, a pure barrel-aged Sangiovese wine (Sangioveto) has been added to the list of Badia wines, and the current product range includes wines made from the abbey's own and purchased grapes. With 800,000 bottles, Coltibuono is one of the larger wineries in the Chianti area. For some years now Roberto Stucchi Prinetti, an oenologist trained at the University of California, Davis, has been managing the winery with his sister Emanuela, giving it a new dynamism that is also reflected in a quantitative expansion. - Gerardo [TS01/23]

"Badia a Coltibuono is one of the most historic and important of the Chianti estates... The Badia Chiantis remain among the most expansive and richest of all the Chiantis. From recent vintages one can see that some wonderfully rich, ripe wines are being made here with cellaring potential of 5-10 years." - Robert Parker