Castelgiocondo (Marchesi Frescobaldi)

Castelgiocondo takes its name from the 'Castellum Ugonis', a stronghold built around 1100 to guard the medieval road running from the Tyrrhenian coast up to Siena. It was one of the four founding estates that first produced Brunello di Montalcino in the late 19th century. The Frescobaldi family — Tuscan wine-growers for more than 700 years across some 30 generations — acquired Castelgiocondo in 1989, making it one of their flagship Brunello estates.

One of the largest estates in Montalcino: roughly 800 hectares in the warm south-west quadrant of the appellation, with around 235 hectares under vine at 300–400 m. Soils are varied — clay, sand, galestro (schist) and limestone. Sangiovese is fermented in temperature-controlled stainless steel and the Brunello is aged principally in large Slavonian oak casks (with some French oak) to satisfy the DOCG's minimum two years in wood plus bottle ageing. The estate's long-serving winemaking team was trained partly in Bordeaux, and from the 2010 vintage the house visibly dialled back overt new-oak character to foreground Sangiovese purity.