The winner of red wine award in Meininger's 100 Wines of the 2022 ranking, the 2017 Brunello di Montalcino was not Tenute Piccini’s only success last year. The business’s 2018 Chianti Classico Riserva came in 14th place among the best red wines from across the world.
How it all began...
It all started with Angiolo Piccini, who laid the foundations for the family business in Poggibonsi in the Chianti region in 1882. He packaged his wine in traditional straw-covered fiasco bottles and set the credo for his successors: "It is not important how much you do, but how much passion you put into it".
Strong exports: two-thirds of sales are generated abroad
Each generation followed the strategies of their predecessors and at the same time managed to innovate. When Angiolo's sons Mario and Arturo took over the winery in the 1920s, the economic conditions were far from ideal, but Mario created new opportunities by exporting to Germany and Austria. Today, the company ships its wine to more than 80 countries around the world, with about two-thirds of its sales going to these foreign markets.
Five generations
Mario's son Pierangiolo took over in the 1960s and moved the company headquarters to Castellina, 15 km away, in the heart of Chianti Classico.
At the same time, he began to broaden the winery's identity beyond Chianti and Chianti Classico to include the increasingly interesting Tuscan region of Maremma.
Since 2004, Pierangiolo's son Mario has been at the helm of Piccini with his sisters Martina and Elisa, with the support of the fifth generation, represented by his daughters Ginevra and Benedetta and his son Michelangelo.
Not only Chianti
Mario Piccini has followed his father Pierangiolo’s ambitious course by moving into other parts of Italy. Today, Piccini has the Regio Cantina wineries in Campania and Torre Mora on Mount Etna. For the firm’s 140th anniversary in 2022, they acquired the Porta Rossa estate in Alba, Piedmont and now Prosecco and Pinot Grigio are both sold under the Piccini brand.
