About Il Valentiano
The name Il Valentiano is a small family joke made permanent: it fuses Valentina and Fabiano, the young couple who run this estate on the quiet, forested flank of Montalcino. Fabiano is the latest in a line of Ciacci growers. His grandfather, Dino Ciacci, moved onto the Mocali farm in 1925, bought it in time, and in 1967 stood among the founding members of the Consorzio del Vino Brunello di Montalcino. Between those two Dino and Fabiano came Silvano, so the vines have passed through four generations of the same family.
The estate sits in the south-western part of the Montalcino zone, roughly 400 metres up, ringed by macchia thick with holm oak and home to wild boar, deer, pheasant and hare. Olive trees and vineyards share the slope. The soils here are rich in iron and free-draining, the sort of warm, well-aired ground that lets Sangiovese ripen slowly and keep its acidity, which is exactly what a serious Brunello needs.
Campaperi, the name on the estate's flagship wines, is a worn-down Tuscan form of Campo dei peri, the field of the pear trees. It was the first specialised vineyard the family planted, back in the 1960s, on reddish gravelly ground with wild pears at its margins. The Campaperi Brunello di Montalcino is made entirely from Sangiovese Grosso and rests around two years in small French oak barriques before release. Production is tiny, roughly 400 cases in a typical vintage.
Alongside the annata Brunello, the estate bottles a Campaperi Brunello di Montalcino Riserva in its stronger years and a Rosso di Montalcino for earlier drinking. The Campaperi wines reach drinkers abroad through merchants and importers including Quigley Fine Wines in the United States and Svinando in Europe, and the Brunello has drawn steady notice from international critics, Wine Enthusiast among them. For all that reach, this stays a hands-on farm run by one family rather than a large commercial cellar.
Il Valentiano receives visitors by appointment. The estate takes small groups, up to about twenty people, and hosts in Italian or English, with weekend visits arranged on request. A reservation is essential, so it is best to contact the winery directly ahead of a visit rather than through an online booking desk.
Editorial · ItalianWines.co.uk
Tuscany, Italy
Est. 1925 
3 wines 
Tastings
Tours
Accommodation
Booking required 
