Why it matters
The producer
In 1090, the abbot of the Benedictine Monastery of Saint Eugenio signed a parchment lease for a property in the hills southeast of Siena. The lease recorded the annual payment due from the land: two capons, three loaves of bread, and six silver coins from Lucca. The property was called Dievole. Vineyards were already among the assets listed alongside houses, woods, and rivers.
The estate spent most of the following nine centuries changing hands and producing wine without any particular distinction. By the twentieth century it had become what much of inland Tuscany quietly was: a source of bulk wine sold without a name attached. That changed in 2012, when Alejandro Bulgheroni, an Argentine businessman who had assembled six Tuscan properties across Chianti, Bolgheri, and Montalcino, purchased the estate and redirected it toward single-vineyard Chianti Classico.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Castelnuovo Berardenga is the southernmost and warmest commune within the Chianti Classico appellation. The zone sits at the edge of the Sienese hills where the landscape opens out and the elevations drop relative to the cooler Radda and Gaiole communes further north. Vagliagli, where Dievole sits, occupies the higher ground within Castelnuovo Berardenga, with vineyards running from 270 metres at the lower slopes up to 420 metres on the ridgelines.
That elevation range matters for Sangiovese. At the upper plots, cooler nights slow ripening and keep acidity higher, which in the glass translates to firmer tannin and longer finish. The soils are sandy and silty-clayey with fossil layers, a combination that drains well and limits vine vigour, concentrating flavour without forcing alcohol upward. Chianti Classico as a label requires a minimum of 80 percent Sangiovese; at Dievole the range is built almost entirely around the grape, with small quantities of Canaiolo Nero and Colorino in the single-vineyard blends.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
Organic farming across 158 hectares means no synthetic herbicides, pesticides, or fertilisers across any of the 16 plots. In the vineyard, this typically shows in higher microbial activity in the soil and more irregular yields from season to season, which in the glass translates to variation in fruit concentration and tannin density across vintages. The Tocca Stelle parcel is farmed from 40-year-old vines, a vine age that reduces yield naturally and concentrates flavour in the remaining fruit.
The Tocca Stelle blend of 85 percent Sangiovese, 10 percent Canaiolo Nero, and 5 percent Colorino follows a traditional Chianti formula. Canaiolo Nero softens tannin and adds a floral dimension; Colorino contributes colour depth. At low percentages, both varieties support rather than redirect the Sangiovese character.
Wines to know
The range in view
The range opens with Le Due Arbie Rosato, a 100 percent Sangiovese rosé labelled as IGT Toscana at 12.5 percent alcohol. The colour is pale salmon. IGT Toscana is used here because the wine falls outside the appellation rules for Chianti Classico, which apply to red wines only; the grape and farming are the same as the red range. It is a direct, grape-pure entry point.
Novecento Chianti Classico Riserva takes its name from novecento, the Italian for nine hundred, a reference to the 900 years of documented estate history. Riserva status under Chianti Classico DOCG rules requires a minimum of 24 months ageing, at least three of which in bottle. The 2020 shows cherry and raspberry on the nose, with earth and eucalyptus adding secondary complexity on the palate. It is fruit-forward with herbal depth, and suited to longer ageing than the entry-level bottlings.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Tocca Stelle Chianti Classico is the bottle that concentrates what Dievole's site and farming produce at their clearest. It comes from 40-year-old vines in a single parcel, blended from 85 percent Sangiovese with small additions of Canaiolo Nero and Colorino, organically farmed on sandy-clay soils between 270 and 420 metres. The 2018 opens with black cherry and citrus-thyme, moves to a compact, dense palate with iodised tannins, and finishes with fruity persistence and mineral grip. There is no soft centre here: the wine is dry, firm, and concentrated. Start with this bottle to understand what the elevation and old-vine Sangiovese produce when vinified from a single parcel rather than blended across the estate.