Storia
Origins extending back to the 12th century
The agricultural holdings historically known as the Fattorie Chigi Saracini have roots extending back to the 12th century. Over the ensuing centuries, a succession of noble families controlled a landed property of more than 900 ha in the municipality of Castelnuovo Berardenga. The surviving account does not date each transfer or identify every family involved in this particular succession.
The Chigi family and the 18th-century cellar
By the middle of the 18th century, the Chigi family had commissioned an underground ageing cellar. That historic space remains intact. Vinification was established in other estate buildings that had originally served as granaries, preserving the agricultural architecture while adapting it to wine production.
Count Guido Chigi Saracini
Guido Chigi Saracini was born in Siena in 1880 and became the last and sole heir to the property that included the Fattorie Chigi Saracini. He held numerous positions of importance in Siena and maintained a close personal attachment to the Castelnuovo Berardenga estate, where he spent the milder seasons.
Music was his other defining interest. In 1932 he founded the Accademia Chigiana Senese, conceived as an international centre for advanced musical education. The academy remains active and continues to undertake cultural projects.
Transfer to MPS Tenimenti
Count Guido Chigi Saracini died in 1965. The Fattorie Chigi Saracini subsequently passed to MPS Tenimenti, the agricultural company of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena. Tenuta Chigi Saracini is now identified as the 71 ha vineyard component devoted to Chianti, Chianti Colli Senesi and IGT production within the wider agricultural property.
Terroir
Tenuta Chigi Saracini is the 71 ha Chianti, Chianti Colli Senesi and IGT vineyard sector of an agricultural property in Castelnuovo Berardenga, positioned across the boundary between the Chianti Classico and Chianti Colli Senesi production areas.
The vineyards of the property occupy elevations between 250 and 370 m on the southern edge of the Chianti Classico zone. The soils combine marine sands with distinctive fluvial terraces.
The climate is Mediterranean and strongly influenced by Monte Amiata. The mountain channels breezes arriving from the Tyrrhenian Sea; this airflow limits the accumulation of humidity and encourages pronounced temperature variation. The interaction of marine sands, river-terrace deposits, Mediterranean conditions and temperature differences is associated with wines marked by territorial character, complexity and ageing capacity.
Vinificazione
Vines are trained using both spur-pruned cordon and Guyot systems. Average planting density is approximately 5,500 vines/ha.
The wider agricultural holding includes vineyards, olive groves, woodland, lakes and other areas of biodiversity. Territorial stewardship is framed around preserving the morphology of the landscape, protecting ecosystems and keeping the environment healthy over the long term.
Wine production uses historic agricultural buildings associated with the Chigi family. The underground ageing cellar was commissioned around the middle of the 18th century and remains intact. Vinification takes place in estate structures that originally functioned as granaries.
The preserved cellar and converted granaries provide the architectural framework for production. Estate-wide details concerning grape reception, sorting, fermentation vessels, yeasts, maceration, malolactic fermentation, oak regimes, stabilization, filtration and bottling are not defined.
Filosofia
Tenuta Chigi Saracini is operated within an agricultural company that presents itself as human-centred, dynamic and financially solid. Day-to-day management is entrusted to a professional team with agricultural and wine-sector experience.
MPS Tenimenti frames its responsibility toward the inherited Chigi Saracini property in territorial rather than exclusively productive terms. Its stated priorities include defending the morphology of the landscape, protecting ecosystems and biodiversity, and maintaining a healthy environment for the future of the holding and the Chianti territory.
The historic underground cellar and the continued use of former estate granaries express an approach that retains the agricultural architecture of the property while keeping the buildings in active productive use.