The Col D'Orcia estate is one of the oldest companies of Montalcino, being present in 1933 with the name "Fattoria di Sant'Angelo in Colle" at the First Exhibition of Italian wines held in Siena, with three vintages of Brunello. The origin of the estate dates back to the first half of the XVIII century when the noble family Delle Ciaia of Siena established an estate in the area of Sant'Angelo in Colle which increased year by year. In the second half of the nineteenth century the ownership was passed to the Servadio family and subsequently to the Franceschi family. In 1973 Count Alberto Marone Cinzano took over the company, with the aim to contribute to the development and success of Montalcino and its Brunello on world markets. From 1977 the company has been under the direction of Edoardo Virano and from 1992 the Col D'Orcia estate is presided over by Count Francesco Marone Cinzano.
Col d'Orcia wines are estate produced and bottled, with grapes grown mostly on the estate and partly in surrounding farms whose vineyards are supervised by Col d'Orcia during the whole productive cycle. The high density of planting, the choice of the rootstock suitable for the characteristics of each piece of land, the use of highly selected clones and an overall attention to the characteristics of each single vineyard ensure a limited production per plant aimed at achieving high quality grapes, healthy, concentrated and rich in colour and tannins. Farming techniques include grass mulching, cluster thinning at the "veraison" and perfect ripening of the grapes on the plant.
Attention to detail characterizes the wine making process at Col d'Orcia , the same given to every other step of the production cycle. The harvest, carried out exclusively by hand, is regulated by precise analysis in order to ensure the optimal phenolic maturation of every bunch collected: a sorting table at the entrance of the cellar allows an even more detailed selection.
Fermentation is conducted in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks shaped so that the surface of contact between juice and skins ensures optimal delicate extraction of the high quality ingredients such as polyphenols and colouring matters. Ageing in wood takes place in Slavonian and selected French oaks. The size of the barrels and the time of ageing vary according to the characteristics of each batch. For some wines ageing in wood can take as long as 4 years. Finally the bottles are kept for further ageing on the estate until their refinement is completed. Therefore we can really state that each bottle of our wine is handcrafted.
The wine-making cellar, made out of the original premises of the farm, has steel tanks with controlled temperature and capacity of 8.400 hectolitres. The ageing cellar, built in the year 1990 and perfectly included in the surrounding Mediterranean environment, has Slavonian and Allier oak barrels whose capacity is 25,50,75,150 hectolitres for a total amount of 7000 hectolitres and no. 800 barriques for a total amount of 1.800 hectolitres.