Why it matters
The producer
The road between Florence and Siena crosses some of the most planted wine country in Italy, and Castello di Gabbiano sits on it at Mercatale Val di Pesa, where a defensive stone tower has stood since the eleventh century. The castle became a working wine estate not long after: cellars were built within its walls in 1124 by the Bardi family, influential Florentine bankers, and documented wine production at the site runs from 1480 to the present day.
Today the estate covers 165 hectares under vine, almost all of it Sangiovese, spread across two clusters in San Casciano in Val di Pesa and San Donato in Poggio. Treasury Wine Estates has owned the property since 2000. Federico Cerelli took over as head winemaker in 2011 and shifted the cellar's direction: less time in wood, less extraction, more of the fruit that the clay and limestone soils of the Chianti Classico zone actually produce.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Chianti Classico is the historic core of the broader Chianti region, a defined zone between Florence and Siena where Sangiovese is the required dominant grape in every wine carrying the appellation. The classification runs in three tiers: Chianti Classico at the base, Riserva in the middle requiring longer ageing, and Gran Selezione at the top, a single-vineyard or best-barrel selection requiring at least thirty months of ageing before release.
San Casciano in Val di Pesa sits at the northern edge of the Chianti Classico zone, closer to Florence than to Siena. Estates here tend to ripen fruit a little earlier than those further south, and the wines often carry a freshness that holds even in warmer years. The Florence-Siena corridor is not an abstract address: it is a physical valley where altitude, river drainage and limestone-rich soils work on Sangiovese across multiple centuries of observation.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
Vines are trained on single-spurred cordon and Guyot, both systems that limit yield per vine and concentrate the harvest. The estate is certified sustainable under ISO 14001:2015, a certification covering the full cycle from vineyard work through bottling and storage, and holds V.I.V.A. production certification, obtained in 2018, with full enterprise certification following in 2021. In 2019, the estate joined the LIFE GREEN GRAPES project, which aims to reduce plant-protection-product use without sacrificing soil biodiversity.
In the cellar, Cerelli's fermentation approach centres on precise extraction control. He collaborated with an engineer specialising in watchmaking to develop a mechanized and computerized cap management system. Wines then age in a mix of traditional large botti, French oak casks, smaller barriques and cement vats, with the vessel choice varying by wine tier and vintage.
Wines to know
The range in view
Sangiovese at 85% of planted area anchors the range from the bottom tier to the top. The remaining 15% of the vineyard carries international varieties: Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Syrah and Petit Verdot, alongside native varieties Colorino, Malvasia and Vermentino.
The estate Chianti Classico is the entry point: Sangiovese-led, approachable on release, built for everyday drinking at the table. The Cavaliere d'Oro Chianti Classico sits above it, a named cuvée where Sangiovese forms the base and a component of international varieties adds body and colour depth. The 2019 was aged across botti, French casks, barriques and cement, producing a wine with firm but resolved tannins, bright acidity, and aromatics that move from sour cherry and dried violet into tobacco and dried herbs with time in the glass.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Cavaliere d'Oro Chianti Classico 2019 is where to start. It is Sangiovese from 165 hectares of clay and limestone in San Casciano in Val di Pesa, aged in a mix of vessels that keeps the fruit legible. Sour cherry, dried violet, firm-resolved tannins, and bright acidity on a mid-length finish: this is the wine that carries Cerelli's reformulation of the cellar. It is not a heavy wine. It is not a simple wine either. The acidity and the grip mean it wants food, ideally something with enough fat or salt to meet the tannin. At its price point within the Chianti Classico range, it is the clearest account of what this estate now produces.