Chianti Classico, Tuscany
The Heart
of Chianti
A guide to the wines, roads, and tables of Italy’s most storied wine country.
Plan your journey“Between Florence and Siena lies a kingdom of cypress, olive, and vine.”
Chianti Classico DOCG
The Chianti Classico zone is one of the world’s most ancient wine territories — a corrugated landscape of limestone and galestro soils stretching between Florence and Siena, where Sangiovese has been cultivated for centuries. Its heartland was first delimited by Grand Duke Cosimo III de’ Medici’s edict of 1716; the modern Classico zone was defined in 1932 and elevated to DOCG status in 1984. Today some 7,200 hectares of vine lie within its boundaries, divided among historic estates, family farms, and medieval hamlets.
The symbol of the zone is the Gallo Nero — the Black Rooster — an emblem tied to a 13th-century legend of rivalry between Florence and Siena. Today it marks a wine of rigorous terroir expression: Sangiovese in its most eloquent form, capable of extraordinary longevity and complexity. From the approachable Annata to the estate-grown Gran Selezione, Chianti Classico speaks in many voices — all of them worth listening to.
“Wine is sunlight, held together by water.”
The Towns
Eight Towns, One Territory
Greve
The market town of the Florentine Chianti: an arcaded piazza, a Saturday market and four UGAs.
Panzano
Greve’s hilltop village above the Conca d’Oro, where organic Sangiovese and Dario Cecchini’s table meet.
Radda
The walled seat of the medieval Lega del Chianti: high, cool and elegant in the glass.
Gaiole
Castle country: Brolio, Meleto, Vertine and the abbey of Coltibuono in the wooded south-east.
Castellina
An Etruscan hill town on the Florence–Siena ridge, with the largest vineyard area of any UGA.
Castelnuovo B.
Chianti’s city of Sangiovese: warm southern slopes where the grape ripens fullest, just outside Siena.
San Casciano
The northern gate from Florence: walls and towers, Machiavelli’s exile and Antinori’s cellar in the hill.
Barberino T.
The western comune of abbeys and walled borghi: Badia a Passignano, San Donato in Poggio, Castello del Nero.
Featured Estate
Chioccioli Altadonna
Born from the legacy of Stefano Chioccioli — one of Tuscany’s most celebrated consulting oenologists — the estate in Gaiole is now run by his sons Niccolò, a second-generation winemaker, and Enrico, who trained as a lawyer before becoming the estate’s Master Distiller. Vineyards in Gaiole and Quercegrossa, harvested entirely by hand at strict low yields, produce a focused range of Chianti Classico. Alongside the wines, Enrico has built the Winestillery — Tuscany’s first independent craft distillery in the Chianti Classico zone, producing gin, vodka, vermouth and malt whisky from estate grapes.
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Plan Your Visit to Chianti
Whether you have a long weekend or a full week, our itineraries take you through the villages, cellars, and kitchens of Chianti Classico — from first espresso to last grappa.
Itineraries →