Why it matters
The producer
In 1968, the castle and roughly 1,000 hectares of land around it were in danger of being sold off and abandoned. The owners launched a public share-offering called Operazione Vigneti, raised the money, and kept the estate intact. That decision is the reason Castello di Meleto exists at its current scale: around 130 hectares of certified organic vineyards in the Chianti Classico zone, planted principally to Sangiovese, with the medieval castle at the centre still standing above the hill.
The estate is in Gaiole in Chianti, one of the three original communes of the Chianti Classico DOCG, in the eastern part of the zone. The castle's oldest walls were built by Benedictine monks in the eleventh century. Its first written record dates to 1256. Wine has been made from this ground for a very long time, and the estate today carries that continuity through an entirely estate-grown, fully organic operation.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Gaiole in Chianti sits at the eastern edge of the Chianti Classico zone, higher in elevation than the central communes of Greve or Panzano. That altitude pushes the harvest later into the autumn, slowing Sangiovese's ripening and encouraging firmer acidity, tighter tannin, and a longer growing window. The wines from this part of the zone tend to be leaner and more age-worthy at release than their lower-altitude counterparts.
The estate's land extends well beyond the vineyards: forest and olive groves surround the planted parcels, keeping the agricultural landscape heterogeneous. The seven named vineyards on the current producer homepage, including Meleto, Casi, Trebbio, Poggiarso, San Piero, Cerreta, and Parabuio, spread across this holding, each contributing differently to the estate's blended and single-vineyard bottlings.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
Every grape in every wine comes from the estate's own vineyards. Seventy percent of the harvest is hand-picked, a figure set by slope gradient and a commitment to bringing in only sound, selected fruit. For the flagship wines, selection happens twice: pickers choose in the vineyard at harvest, then every bunch is checked again on a sorting table in the cellar. That double pass allows winemaker Giovanni Balli and oenologist Valentino Ciarla to work with fruit healthy enough to ferment spontaneously and to use lower levels of sulphur.
In the cellar, the estate uses three vessel types: steel, concrete, and wood. Large wooden barrels handle the longer maturations on the upper-tier wines, preserving fruit character without adding new oak flavour. The base Chianti Classico DOCG spends fifteen months moving between concrete and large barrels before bottling. Across the range, the choice of vessel follows the principle the Chianti Classico consortium records for this estate: preserve the grape's typicity from vineyard to glass.
Wines to know
The range in view
The range is built on Sangiovese, with Merlot appearing as a blending component in the base Chianti Classico DOCG. The producer's Neo-Classics label carries the entry wine: a whole-estate blend drawn from across all seven vineyards, aged fifteen months in concrete and large barrel, built for approachability without sacrificing the red cherry and dried herb character that Gaiole Sangiovese produces at altitude. Red fruit is forward, tannin is present but not hard, and the large-barrel maturation keeps the oak in the background.
Above the base DOCG, the range moves into single-vineyard bottlings and a Gran Selezione tier, where individual parcels such as Meleto or Casi take the label and the wine sharpens toward more concentrated fruit, firmer tannin, and a longer finish. Gran Selezione requires a minimum of thirty months' ageing under Chianti Classico regulations, and the single-parcel sourcing at this level exposes the elevation differences and aspect variations within the estate. The upper wines are not simply richer versions of the entry wine; they carry the character of specific ground.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
The Neo-Classics Chianti Classico DOCG is the right first bottle. It draws on all seven vineyards across the estate, blends Sangiovese with a proportion of Merlot to soften the frame, and spends fifteen months between concrete and large barrel before release. In the glass it is medium-bodied, fresh, and direct: red cherry, dried herb, firm but approachable tannin, and the clean acid line that Gaiole altitude produces in Sangiovese. There is no new oak character, no extracted weight, and no difficulty. It is a Chianti Classico that explains what the estate does at scale, at a price suited to opening.