Discover Castello di Brolio

The castello di Brolio stands in the locality of Brolio, near San Regolo, in the comune of Gaiole in Chianti. The imposing building sits on the back of a hill detaching from a western spur of the high Monti del Chianti between Monte Fienali and Monte Luco Berardenga, flanked by the Malena and Dudda torrents, tributaries of the Arbia.

Repetti described it in 1846 as "a pentagon of very solid walls twenty-four braccia high with bastions and covered walks, provided at each of the angles with embrasures and loopholes" — containing, within the castle's enclosure, the Baron's palace, the garden, the chapel, the vast annexes of the estate, and "a tall square tower, the ancient cassero recalled in Florentine histories".

It has belonged to the Ricasoli since the twelfth century. The first public act drawn up by that house in their court of Brolio is dated February 1141. Entering Florentine territory coincided with massive fortification, because Brolio was the last outpost of the Florentine Republic on the Florentine–Sienese border.

Today it is a wine estate of nearly 240 hectares of vineyard which, by its own account, receives more than 50,000 visitors a year for tastings, guided visits and food-and-wine itineraries. Since 1993 the company has been directed by Francesco Ricasoli, 32nd Baron of Brolio.

The type is a walled castle, pentagonal in plan. Repetti's 1846 description gives solid walls twenty-four braccia high with bastions and covered wall-walks, each angle provided with embrasures and loopholes for spingarde and other projectiles, the whole enclosing palace, garden, chapel, estate buildings, square tower and the meadow around the ramparts.

The oldest element is a base. Only the basamento of the cassero, going back to the first years of the millennium, is recognisable as original castle fabric. The square tower above it is the antico cassero named in Florentine histories.

The walls themselves are medieval-Renaissance. Well preserved, and typical of that architecture — which is to say rebuilt and strengthened repeatedly across the centuries of frontier warfare rather than surviving from one campaign.

The 1835 skin is Gothic Revival, and foreign. Pietro Marchetti transformed the ancient fortress into an English manor, using brick as the principal material, opening Tudor-style windows and inserting crenellated turrets foreign to local architecture — the record's own phrase, and the key to not misreading the building.

The chapel is a separate composition. A gabled facade preceded by a double stone stair, a mosaic lunette, a nave of three cross-vaulted bays, a crypt beneath, and an altar zone finished in mosaic from 1874.

An attribution the dates refuse. The conversion of Brolio into a seigneurial residence is credited by the record to Giuliano da Sangallo and placed after the Florentine conquest of Siena. Sangallo died on 16 October 1516; the war of Siena ran 1552–1559. The conversion happened; the attribution cannot stand as framed.

Two materials, two eras, and no attempt to disguise the join. Pietra serena is the ancient building stone here and brick is the nineteenth century; the record says plainly that the various epochs are easily distinguishable by which is used where.

The medieval work is defensive engineering. Walls twenty-four braccia high, bastions, covered walks, and at every angle openings and loopholes for spingarde — light artillery pieces. This is a wall built to be shot from as well as at.

It was repeatedly rebuilt because it was repeatedly broken. Part of the walls came down under Sienese mortar fire on 27 August 1478, and when Brolio surrendered on 14 September the victors burned houses and threw down the walls. What stands is the recovery from that, and from earlier losses in 1252 and 1434.

The 1835 campaign was additive and English. Marchetti built in brick on and around the old stone: Tudor windows, crenellated turrets, the silhouette of a manor rather than a fortress. The Gothic Revival was a romantic movement originating in England, and Brolio is its most conspicuous Tuscan application.

The planting was a construction project too. Simone Ricasoli, a botanist, laid out the romantic park with imported species; the firs he planted are now 30 to 40 metres tall, which is to say the nineteenth-century garden has outgrown the nineteenth-century building.

And the chapel's decoration was commissioned work with a paper trail. Mosaics executed from 1874 by the Compagnia Venezia Murano, following cartoons by Alessandro Franchi still conserved in the castle.

Is this where Chianti Classico was invented?

The blend was defined here. In 1874, after years of trials, Bettino Ricasoli settled on the uvaggio based on the clones of Sangiovese di Brolio, and the production rules for Chianti Classico were inspired by it almost a century later.

How old is the castle?

Older than it looks and newer than it looks. The base of the cassero dates to the first years of the millennium and the Ricasoli have been here since 1141 — but the brick manor with Tudor windows and crenellated turrets is 1835, by Pietro Marchetti.

Did Giuliano da Sangallo design it?

The record says he designed the conversion into a residence, after the Florentine conquest of Siena. Sangallo died in 1516 and that conquest was completed in 1555, so the attribution cannot stand as stated and this page does not repeat it.

Can I visit?

Yes — the estate reports more than 50,000 visitors a year for tastings, guided visits and food-and-wine itineraries. No admission price is published on the pages read for this entry; book through the estate.

Is there somewhere to eat?

The Osteria di Brolio: lunch and dinner 12:00–15:00 / 19:00–21:30, Sunday lunch only, closed Wednesday and Thursday and Sunday evening. Telephone +39 0577 730 290.

What should I look at in the gardens?

Two of them: the sixteenth-century Italian garden with box hedges, and the nineteenth-century romantic park of the botanist Simone Ricasoli, whose imported firs now reach 30 to 40 metres.

What is in the chapel?

The cappella di San Jacopo, founded 1348 and renewed 1867–69, with mosaics from 1874 by the Compagnia Venezia Murano after cartoons by Alessandro Franchi, and a crypt where the Ricasoli are buried.