Why it matters
The producer
In 1937, fourteen winemakers in Montepulciano made a decision that most of their neighbours had not: they pooled their vineyards, their equipment, and their cellars into a single cooperative. Montepulciano is a walled hilltop town in the south of Tuscany's Siena province, and at the time its winemakers were selling largely in bulk, each too small to negotiate the terms that a larger body could command. The fourteen founders changed that. The cantina they built now draws from 400 member estates across roughly 1,000 hectares, making it one of the largest producers of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG in existence.
That scale is the story. Vecchia Cantina is not a small family estate chasing prestige through scarcity; it is the producer that shows how Sangiovese, grown across 300 hectares of the Montepulciano hills, functions at volume and still earns a DOCG designation with genuine character. Of 7 million bottles produced annually, 1.5 million carry the Vino Nobile DOCG label.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Montepulciano sits at roughly 600 metres above sea level, on a ridge between the Chiana and Orcia valleys in southeastern Tuscany. The altitude slows ripening, holding acidity in the Sangiovese grape through a long growing season. The appellation, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG, is one of Tuscany's oldest classified wine zones, distinct from both Chianti Classico to the north and Brunello di Montalcino to the west, though all three are built on Sangiovese. Here the grape goes by a local name, Prugnolo Gentile, a Sangiovese clone selected over generations for the soils and temperatures of the hill.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
The 400 member estates each farm their own vineyards and deliver fruit to the cooperative for processing. Vineyard allocations are designated by wine type: 300 hectares feed the Vino Nobile DOCG, 130 hectares produce Rosso di Montepulciano DOC, and a single hectare is set aside for Vin Santo di Montepulciano. That allocation matters because DOCG rules require fruit from within the appellation boundary, so the member vineyards in the Nobile zone are the direct input for Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG.
Wines to know
The range in view
Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG is the cooperative's defining wine. Made from Sangiovese (Prugnolo Gentile) grown across 300 hectares of the appellation zone, it is deep red with violet reflections in the glass. On the nose, dark fruit and underbrush aromatics dominate: dried cherry, earth, dried herb. On the palate it is full and harmonious, with firm tannin in the finish. This is a wine built for ageing, and the Vino Nobile ages in Slovenian oak casks and French oak barriques.
Rosso di Montepulciano DOC is the lighter, younger tier, from 130 hectares. No detailed profile is confirmed from available sources, but DOCG rules require shorter ageing than the Nobile, and the DOC designation signals an earlier-drinking, less complex wine.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Start with the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG. It is the wine the cooperative was built around: Sangiovese grown on the Montepulciano hills, aged in the underground barrel hall in Slovenian oak casks, and bottled under the appellation's strictest designation. Deep red in the glass with violet hints, dark fruit and earthy aromatics on the nose, and a full palate with firm tannin in the finish. It is not a wine for immediate drinking; the tannin needs time to settle, and the fruit opens further with an hour of air. This is what 300 hectares of Prugnolo Gentile, pooled across 400 estates and aged in a 2,800-square-metre barrel hall, produces.