The Cellars Under the Palazzo: Contucci and a Thousand Years of Wine in Montepulciano

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In 1008, a family called Contucci is first documented in Montepulciano. More than a thousand years later, a member of that family pours wine in a cellar cut from the volcanic tufa beneath a Renaissance palazzo on the same ridge.

That is the story of Contucci — not as heritage marketing but as simple fact. The cellar has been used to age wine continuously since the sixteenth century, long before Vino Nobile di Montepulciano was given its name, long before DOC or DOCG designations existed. And in 1980, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano became the first wine in Italy to receive DOCG status — before Barolo, before Brunello, before Chianti Classico — a designation the families who had been making it for centuries helped argue into existence. Contucci was among them.

The Town the Contucci Family Helped Build

Montepulciano sits on a long ridge at 605 metres, commanding sight lines that made it strategically important for centuries. The Contucci palazzo is one of the noble buildings on the Corso — a sixteenth-century structure at the upper end of the main street, steps from the Piazza Grande. Below it, carved into the tufa, are the cellars where the wine has always been made and aged. The Sala delle Feste on the upper floors, with its painted ceilings and portraits of family ancestors, stands above the same stone that holds the barrels. The building is inseparable from the wine.

Alamanno Contucci, the sixteenth-century forebear whose portrait still hangs in the palazzo, gave his name to the winery’s single-vineyard selection — a thread of continuity across five centuries. Today, Andrea Contucci carries the estate forward. The principles remain those of the cellar: large Slavonian oak casks, extended ageing, patience with a wine that has always demanded it.

“For me, it’s an honour and, at the same time, a great responsibility. Our family keeps alive a millennia-old tradition, which belongs to all of Montepulciano, not just us. I hope that future generations of Contucci continue this wonderful tradition, with dedication and passion.”

— Andrea Contucci

What Vino Nobile Is

Vino Nobile di Montepulciano is made from Prugnolo Gentile — a Sangiovese clone that grows in these particular hills with a character distinct enough to justify its own designation. The soil is clay and sand with galestro stone; the altitude and the wind off the Chiana valley give the wine a freshness the warmer zones to the south cannot match.

The “Nobile” in the name was formal from 1966 (DOC), but the wine’s reputation as something distinguished predates documentation. Contucci produced wine served at the Medici court, supplied the Papal States, and was sold throughout Tuscany when most regional wine went no further than the nearest market town.

The Wine

The Contucci range centres on two expressions of Vino Nobile. The standard release, aged in large Slavonian oak, is the wine the cellar was built to make: structured, slow to open, built for the table rather than the glass alone. High acidity makes it a natural companion to the food of Tuscany — wild boar, pici pasta, the pecorino from the surrounding hills. Tannins that resolve over years into something the producers of the 1970s and 1980s who moved toward softer styles were too impatient to wait for.

The Riserva spends longer in oak and bottle before release. Above these sits the Alamanno — the single-vineyard selection from the Salarco vineyard, the estate’s oldest vines on a slope southwest of the town. The wine is the estate’s argument that this specific piece of ground, tended by this specific family, produces something that cannot be replicated elsewhere. The approach across all three: no small barrique, no shortcuts, no concession to vintages that do not support the wine the cellar was built to make.

Visiting

The Contucci cantina operates tastings directly below the palazzo on the Corso — one of the few historic cellars in Montepulciano that opens its doors to visitors. Tasting in a room carved from tufa, drinking wine from vines on the ridge outside, is the experience that makes Montepulciano something other than a beautiful hill town. The Piazza Grande and the Tempio di San Biagio are both within easy walking distance; Pienza and the Orcia valley are forty minutes south for those who want a full day in the region.

The cellar under the Contucci palazzo will be there when you return. In a place where time is measured in centuries, they are not in a hurry.

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