“I look out the window of the Brolio Castle and look at this panorama: I close my eyes and imagine a painting from the Renaissance. It is a bit like being in the Uffizi and contemplating a work of art made up of the combination of art and nature”.
This is how Francesco Ricasoli, the owner of Castello di Brolio, expresses himself and I couldn’t find more beautiful words.
Brolio Castle dominates a landscape of green hills and valleys, at the center of the Ricasoli winery. The imposing castle, around which the fifteenth-century walls develop with high towers, including the keep, stands out on the back of an isolated hillock about five hundred meters above sea level, which slopes down towards the Arbia Valley.
We are in Gaiole in Chianti, about twenty kilometers from Siena, in Tuscany, among very green hills, thick woods of oak and chestnut trees and historic vineyards: here reigns a silence and a tranquility that touches the emotional chords, while one lets oneself be absorbed beauty of the majestic castle.
The first documentation that traces the existence of the Castle of Brolio dates back to 1141, certainly dating back to even earlier times. However, we know that the Ricasoli family has origins in the eighth century and from here we find their traces up to modern history. Francesco Ricasoli had a great-great-grandfather, Bettino Ricasoli (1809-1880), who was truly special: a statesman and wine entrepreneur of remarkable foresight, who even created the Chianti formula in 1872, on which the Chianti Classico specification is still based today.
The current conformation of the castle derives from the reconstruction, according to the neo-Gothic style in vogue at the end of the 19th century, commissioned by Bettino Ricasoli to make it his home with over one hundred rooms. The presence of the “iron baron”, as Bettino Ricasoli was called, is kept alive by the many documents in the Ricasoli museum and even by the legend of the ghost who wanders around the castle at night on a white horse.
Of considerable importance is the museum inside the walls, which thanks to Bettino Ricasoli, allows us to enter the era of the Italian Risorgimento and tells of his interest in science and the arts. It also houses a fascinating collection of period weapons, with unique and rare pieces that tell the story of this family of warrior origins, who fought alongside the Medici and who then made a fundamental contribution to the unification of Italy.
After all, Brolio Castle is birthplace of the family history. A geographically strategic site, geologically blessed for the richness and variety of the land, which has welcomed cultural and political life in different historical moments.
Just outside the walls of the castle extends the sixteenth-century Italian garden, while all around it opens the romantic nineteenth-century park, called Bosco Inglese.
Today, with 240 hectares of vineyards, Ricasoli is the largest winery in the Chianti Classico appellation. In recent years, a great deal of scientific zoning work has been carried out, based on the different soils that make up the property, and of experimentation on the historical clones of Sangiovese di Brolio. The company’s commitment to preserving the surrounding landscape and respecting the soil is evident when walking through the vineyards surrounding the fortress.
Brolio Castle is also a tourist destination that welcomes over fifty thousand people every year and is part of the Italian Historical Houses Association.
