Famiglia Cecchi

Separate lots before the blend

The grapes ferment by estate before any final blend takes shape. Andrea Cecchi, winemaker at Famiglia Cecchi in Castellina in Chianti, keeps that discipline close to the family name he now leads. His path runs through the University of Agraria in Florence, then into the owner and winemaker role he has held since 2004, with the added weight of president and CEO. At this house, the title is not only administrative. It reaches into vineyard choices, cellar investment, and the question of how a Chianti Classico house carries inheritance without letting it harden. Luigi Cecchi established the winery in 1893, and Andrea works as the fourth generation in a family that has stayed with Tuscan wine through its shift from local agricultural staple to export language. The headquarters came to Castellina in Chianti in the 1970s, set among Chianti Classico vineyards rather than apart from them. The family now works across Tuscany and Umbria, but the center of gravity remains here, in a rural estate where Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon, Vermentino, Trebbiano Toscano, and Trebbiano Spoletino all sit inside a wider conversation about land, vintage, and restraint.

Barriques for Gli Scudi, large barrels for the estates

The method at Famiglia Cecchi depends on keeping difference visible. Across 300 hectares of vineyards, the family works Villa Cerna and Villa Rosa in Chianti Classico, Val delle Rose in Maremma Toscana, Tenuta Alzatura in Montefalco, and a Montalcino holding for Brunello di Montalcino. Grapes ferment and age separately, then the final blend happens at bottling, a way of preserving the character of vintage and site before the house asks the wines to speak together. Malolactic fermentation takes place in stainless steel for freshness and balance. The barrel program changes by address: the Gli Scudi wines from Castellina in Chianti use barriques for a more international register, while Villa Cerna and Villa Rosa rely on large barrels to keep a more traditional profile. The 2021 Cecchi Storia di Famiglia Chianti Classico DOCG is 90% Sangiovese and 10% other local grapes, with 6 months in barriques and 2 months in bottle. The 2019 Cecchi Riserva di Famiglia Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG spends 12 months in barrique and tonneaux, then 3+ months in bottle. The 2018 Cecchi Valore di Famiglia Chianti Classico Gran Selezione DOCG is 100% Sangiovese.

A cellar tied to the hillside

The room at Castellina in Chianti has the pace of an agricultural house, not a display cellar. Work gathers around fruit, stainless steel, wood, and the repeated decisions that make a vintage legible. The tasting room belongs to that same rhythm: Chianti Classico on the table, estate names moving in and out of the glass, the family story present but not theatrical. Outside, the setting is rural and working, with estate buildings and vineyards holding the eye before design does. In that landscape, Andrea Cecchi’s line about developing terroirs through different personalities and identities reads as a practical instruction. It asks the cellar to keep Villa Cerna, Villa Rosa, Val delle Rose, Tenuta Alzatura, and Castellina from collapsing into one house style.

Continuity measured in water and vines

The sustainability work here has dates attached to it. Cecchi installed a wastewater treatment plant in the early 1990s, and Val delle Rose followed with a similar plant in 2012. In 2021, Tenuta Alzatura and Val delle Rose converted to organic farming. Those choices sit beside the family’s work with new clones and the preservation of native grape varieties, so the program looks both backward and forward. If the next bottle has to carry that argument plainly, it is the 2018 Cecchi Valore di Famiglia Gran Selezione.