DestinationsMontalcino
Montalcino.
Where it sits
the Val d'OrciaMontalcino is a wine name first and a town second, and it earns both. The hilltop town in the western Val d'Orcia gives its name to Brunello di Montalcino, one of Italy's greatest reds — a 100% Sangiovese that ages for decades and rewards a serious week.
Beyond the wine, the town is a tight medieval hill town crowned by a fourteenth-century Fortezza you can climb for the view, with the Romanesque abbey of Sant'Antimo in the valley below — one of the most beautiful churches in Tuscany, worth the short drive for the setting alone.
Don’t miss
- Brunello di Montalcino, one of Italy's greatest reds
- The 14th-century Fortezza and its wine bar
- The Romanesque abbey of Sant'Antimo below the town
- At the heart of the Val d'Orcia estate country
The Wine of Montalcino
Brunello is the reason most people come: powerful, age-worthy Sangiovese from the hills around the town, with names like Biondi-Santi and Soldera Case Basse at the top. You can taste a broad range in the enoteca inside the Fortezza, but the better experience is a private, owner- or winemaker-led visit at an estate, which we arrange.
The Town and Sant'Antimo
The town itself is small and steep, worth an afternoon for the Fortezza, the views and a slow lunch. Below it, the twelfth-century abbey of Sant'Antimo sits alone in a valley of olive groves — one of the loveliest Romanesque churches in Italy, and a fifteen-minute drive that everyone is glad they made.
Villas near here
Frequently asked
- What is Montalcino known for?
- Brunello di Montalcino, one of Italy's greatest and most age-worthy red wines, made from 100% Sangiovese on the hills around the town.
- Can you arrange Brunello tastings in Montalcino?
- Yes, including private, owner-led visits at estates that do not take public bookings.
- What else is there to see in Montalcino?
- The 14th-century Fortezza with its wine bar, and the Romanesque abbey of Sant'Antimo in the valley just below.
- Where do you stay near Montalcino?
- In the Val d'Orcia, which holds the collection's grandest estates.
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