Storia
The historic landscape of Monteloro
Monteloro was historically associated with aristocratic Florentine families, including those of Beatrice Portinari and Dante Alighieri. They spent summers in manor houses in the countryside, and their surviving residences remain part of the locality’s historical legacy.
A local tradition connects the wooded landscape and its narrow white roads with Dante’s imagined journey in the Divine Comedy. Another tradition identifies Monteloro as the setting in which the story of Dante’s love for Beatrice—celebrated in Vita Nova—took shape.
2002: development of a white-wine territory
After years of pedoclimatic investigation, Marchesi Antinori began developing the expression of Riesling and Pinot Bianco at Monteloro in 2002. The work focused on understanding a previously little-explored, high-altitude Tuscan environment considered particularly suitable for white varieties.
2007: the first Mezzo Braccio vintage
Mezzo Braccio, a Riesling Renano from the estate, has been produced since the 2007 vintage. It is associated with the Le Fonti vineyard and takes its name from an old Florentine unit used in rural areas to measure small plots of land.
The estate today
Tenuta Monteloro now extends across 600 hectares, including 122 hectares of vineyards. Riesling and Pinot Bianco are the principal plantings, while Pinot Grigio is also cultivated. The vineyard is divided among numerous small parcels at different elevations and with different exposures, supporting continued investigation of the estate’s varied growing conditions.
Terroir
Tenuta Monteloro lies immediately behind Fiesole, near Florence, at the southern foot of the Apennines. Its average elevation is approximately 500 metres above sea level.
The climate remains notably cool throughout the year and is marked by temperature differences between day and night. The estate presents this high-altitude setting as particularly suited to aromatic white varieties, especially Riesling, Pinot Bianco and Pinot Grigio.
The vineyards are distributed among numerous small parcels—many only a little over one hectare—at different elevations and with varying exposures. This combination of parcel size, altitude and orientation contributes distinct components to the resulting wines.
Soils are mineral-rich and generally clayey, predominantly calcareous and stony. More specific descriptions identify loamy soils tending toward limestone in the Pinot Grigio areas and clay soils tending toward limestone, with a substantial stony fraction, in the Riesling vineyards.
The estate describes the varieties’ early expression in this environment as firm, austere and driven by pronounced acidity; with time, they acquire structure and become softer.
Vinificazione
Years of pedoclimatic study preceded the development of Riesling and Pinot Bianco at Monteloro. This research examined the interaction of soils, cool conditions, altitude and the differing exposures of the estate’s many small parcels in order to identify the varieties best adapted to the site.
Filosofia
Tenuta Monteloro’s project is founded on patient research into a previously little-explored Tuscan environment for white varieties. Beginning in 2002, the objective was to identify and develop the particular expressions that Riesling and Pinot Bianco could achieve in the estate’s cool, high-altitude conditions.
The parcel structure is integral to that approach. Small vineyard blocks at different elevations and exposures provide distinct components, allowing the complexity of the estate to emerge through their combined expression. The emphasis is on white wines capable of translating the site’s acidity, mineral character and capacity to develop greater structure and softness over time.
Vini
Mezzo Braccio
Scabrezza
