Vineyards Magazine

Entering Castello di Querceto, one’s gaze is immediately caught by a late 18^th-century photo of some François family’s ancestors. The images are a bit time-scarred, but those piercing eyes, even 120 years on, leave no doubt about the reasons why this family, still today owners of this wine estate, has become one of the leading lights in Chianti Classico, driven by their desire to offer wine-lovers authentic expressions of classic Tuscan grape varieties.    

Starting in the early 1900s, with their first all-Sangiovese vineyards, through 1924, when they and a select group of 32 other producers founded Consorzio del Vino Chianti Classico, and right up to the present moment, Castello di Querceto has always, through its wines, spoken to the world in an intensely family and personal fashion.   

The interpretation of the cru vineyards and the identification of grape selections that best represent the estate have always been, since the 1970s, Alessandro François’ objectives, and he has succeeded in winning recognition across the globe for Castello di Querceto as one of Chianti Classico’s best-known producers. Today, in fact, 90% of its production is exported to over 50 countries, a marketing achievement of which Alessandro and Antonietta François are justly proud.    

2017 ushers in Castello di Querceto’s commemoration of its 120 years of winemaking, and it is celebrating that milestone by uncorking two of its iconic wines–both obviously monovarietal Sangioveses. The first, La Corte IGT Colli della Toscana Centrale, was the winery’s first cru, and some early-1900s vintages of it are still lying in collectors’ cellars. The second, Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG Il Picchio, is the quintessential expression of the best vineyards in the south-eastern part of the estate. 

“There will be no special commemorative label for either wine,” states François; “the wines themselves are perfectly capable of recounting our history.” And in fact, these two interpreters of the wine estate’s philosophy prefer to reveal themselves directly in the glass: La Corte through its elegance, its fruit and subtle hint of balsam, Il Picchio with its structure and impressive length, heightened by herbaceous and floral notes and a touch of chocolate.   

Raising a glass of Castello di Querceto is a full-immersion into the history of Chianti Classico.