Why has Tuscany’s Orcia Valley become a talent magnet?

In her autobiography, Images and Shadows, Iris Origo, an Anglo-American writer, social historian and philanthropist, recalls her and her husband’s search for a home in Italy in the mid 1920s.

Settling in the south of Siena, between the towns of Montalcino and Montepulciano in Tuscany, just north of Monte Amiata in the Orcia Valley, Origo wrote: ‘That vast, solitary, unspoiled landscape charmed and enthralled us: to live in the shadow of that mysterious mountain…that, we were sure, was the life we wanted.’

One hundred years on and the landscape is little changed, though its potential for wine production is beginning to be realised, attracting winemakers from those more famous hilltop towns.

An enchanting landscape, the Val d’Orcia / Orcia Valley is divided in two by the Orcia River running from east to west towards the Tyrhennian sea.

Origo’s ‘mysterious mountain’ is Monte Amiata, an extinct volcano last active some 300,000 years ago. It shelters the vineyards in its shadow, and is sacred to those on its slope now and long, long ago – some say it was the seat of the Etruscan gods, and the lightning storms are quite the spectacle.

Surrounded by giants

The hills of the Val d’Orcia roll between the mountain, Montalcino and Montepulciano in ripples. The landscape is more gentle on the eye than the dramatic, steep and deeply forested Chianti Classico.

Instead, fields of golden wheat and barley cover great stretches of land, interrupted by slithers and points of posturing cypress trees so evenly planted that their presence must have been orchestrated by mathematical minds.

Vineyards appear infrequently, atop grey clay, sand and silt – soils as ‘bare and colourless as elephants’ backs’, noted Origo. Where green vines do not puncture the soil, and cereal and grain cannot grow, mounds of grey, inhospitable clay go on for miles – one might be looking across the moon’s surface.

For centuries, painters and writers have tried to translate the beauty of this region. And with the relatively new Orcia DOC, established in 2000, winemakers are officially offering their own expressions of this territory.

The DOC encompasses around 160 hectares of vines and has 40 producers, with an annual output of around 300,000 bottles. It’s a tiny production in comparison to neighbouring Montalcino with its average production upwards of nine million bottles.

Winemakers previously using the Toscana IGT can label their wines under seven categories: Orcia, Orcia Riserva, Orcia Sangiovese, Orcia Sangiovese Riserva, Orcia Rosato, Orcia Bianco and Orcia Vin Santo (see more in the box below).

It will be interesting to watch how the Orcia DOC finds its way next to the giants on either side. The seven categories of DOC do not yet seem to fit the potential of the land, or the ambition of the region’s winemakers.

But their humility, curiosity and respect for the land bodes well for the future of this nascent Tuscan wine appellation.

Four talents attracted to the Orcia Valley

Maurizio Comitini

Maurizio Comitini, winemaker of excellent Vino Nobile in Montepulciano at Azienda Croce di Febo, has been working with Il Pero since 2015. He’s based in the commune of Radicofani, next to the estate of the late Andrea Franchetti, Tenuta di Trinoro.

Comitini was keen to see how Sangiovese expressed itself in the warmer, more windswept and arid Val d’Orcia, and with few vines in this area he was keen to understand the level of biodiversity.

He says: ‘Val d’Orcia has an oenological story largely still to be written, and with the liberality of the DOC one is more able to comply with the real vocation of the grapes.’

He was especially keen to work with Sangiovese in concrete, appreciating the flexibility of the DOC regulations which make it possible to produce a premium DOC wine without the requirement to put the wine into wood for a year, as is the rule for Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.

Without oak, the Sangiovese of Orcia – in comparison to Montepulciano – is more approachable and less austere, the tannins less sculpted, making for wines that are more open and expansive.

Tim Manning

For over 20 years, Manchester-born Tim Manning has been working in Chianti Classico. There he has made a reputation for himself with his artisanal and sensitive approach to Sangiovese at Riecine, Il Borghetto and Montecalvi.

In 2020 he joined Fabbrica, a Swiss-owned winery in the outskirts of Pienza.

Of the Orcia DOC, he says: ‘Orcia is billed as one of the most beautiful DOCs in Italy – but there is substance behind the good looks. Its producers are modest, passionate and unstuffy, it can easily give Montalcino a run for its money and produce Sangiovese-based (or not!) wine with an elegance and drinkability to match Chianti Classico.’

His Orcia Sangiovese Riserva ‘Tinia’ perfectly exemplifies the capacity for this DOC to compete with its premium neighbours; Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.

But it is the Syrah that Tim produces, however, that really makes me swoon.

After analysis of the hill morphology (similar to Southern Rhône) and of its soils (similar to Crozes-Hermitage in the Northern Rhône), the owners decided to plant Syrah.

Under Manning’s guardianship, the variety is vinified in concrete with 20% whole-cluster fruit, pressed out after around 60 days on the skins, and aged for 18 months in a large 50hl oak barrel.

The aromas are enticing; dark and forest fruity, and the palate is deeply flavoursome, entirely fresh with no jammy notes to dull the appetite. Easily a one-bottle-not-one-glass kind of wine!

I found this variety at other estates in Orcia, such as Poggio Grande, to be equally magnetic.

Gerhard Sanin

With no historical tradition regulating viticulture here, there is a lot of experimentation and many playful yet premium wines running beneath the Toscana IGT banner.

Ever tried a Vin Gris made with co-fermented Sauvignon Blanc and Black Muscat?

Neither had I until I found the Mastrojanni family, of Brunello fame, working away at La Nascosta (‘The Hidden One’) a few kilometres east of Montalcino in Castiglione d’Orcia.

After selling their eponymous estate in Castelnuovo Dell’Abate in 2008, Antonio Mastrojanni and his son Luca began buying small parcels of vineyards in the Orcia Valley.

They began experimenting with various clones of Sangiovese and some other varieties rather unusual for the region, such as Gewurztraminer, Sauvignon Blanc and Moscato Nero.

With the nighttime temperature sometimes dropping by 20℃, Luca explains that it’s possible to achieve beautiful white wines. To support the Mastrojanni’s enthusiasm for these grapes, they engaged the help of winemaker Gerhard Sanin from Tenuta Moser in Südtirol in 2019.

Giovanni Stella

For now, the DOC does not allow for wines with high percentages of non-native varieties. The character and quality of the IGT wines in Val d’Orcia must not be overlooked.

Giovanni Stella is a Tuscan-born winemaker working in Chianti Classico at Caparsa in Radda and San Donatino in Castellina. Five years ago he began working at Ultima Pietra in Trequanda, a small family-owned winery in the north of the Val d’Orcia.

He is passionate about the region’s capacity to make world-class wines: ‘We know that our grapes have this unique and in no way imitable imprint of the place where the vine is grown. And here in Val d’Orcia, it is exceptionally beautiful. Our wines must communicate this, this is our goal.’

Orcia Valley fact box

160 hectares under vine

12 communes: Buonconvento, Castiglione d’Orcia, Pienza, Radicofani, San Quirico d’Orcia, Trequanda, Abbadia San Salvatore, Chianciano Terme, Montalcino, San Casciano dei Bagni, Sartiano and Torrita di Siena

40 wineries

Producers to know: Fabbrica, Il Pero, Poggio Grande, Tenuta Sanoner, La Nascosta, Atrium, Ultima Pietra, Giacomo Baraldo, Donatella Cinelli Colombini, Podere Forte

Key grape varieties: Sangiovese, Trebbiano (for Orcia DOC). Syrah, Marsanne, Rousanne, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot etc (for Toscana IGT)

Orcia DOC: Minimum 60% Sangiovese grapes and other non-aromatic grapes, released onto the market in the March following the harvest

Orcia Riserva DOC: Minimum 24 months of ageing; at least 12 in oak barrels

Orcia Sangiovese DOC: Minimmum 90% Sangiovese grapes and a maximum of 10% of Canaiolo Nero, Colorino, Ciliegiolo, Foglia Tonda, Pugnitello or Malvasia Nera

Orcia Sangiovese Riserva DOC: Aged for 30 months; at least 24 in oak barrels

Orcia Rosato DOC: Minimum 60% Sangiovese with a maximum of 40% non-aromatic varieties (not to exceed 10% white grapes)

Orcia Bianco DOC: Minimum 50% Trebbiano grapes and a blend of up to 50% other non-aromatic white grapes

Orcia Vin Santo DOC: Minimum 50% of Trebbiano, Malvasia, and up to 50% other aromatic white grapes

Orcia Valley: Eight to try

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