AN HISTORICAL OVERVIEW
The Belriguardo Charterhouse stands high on the
hills sur-rounding Siena, some 7 kilometres (4½ miles) from city
centre. The site ideally fits into the breath-taking Tuscan landscape,
where vines and olive trees joyfully take turns in an array of colours
and sceneries sharply marking out this land ideally suited for vine-growing.
The winery, stretching over some 75 (160 acres) hectares, of which only 8 hectares (17 acres) are planted with vineyards, is lo-cated in the middle of the Chianti region over the Sienese hills. Here the Sangiovese vine holds centre role as the undisputed top variety. The charterhouse’s historical building (its construction got under way in 1340 and was completed in 1347) is graced with a double cypress row and stands at the very entrance to the farm on a slope overlooking Siena. The first twelve monks settled in at Bel-riguardo (Italian for “beautiful view”) as early as 1348, as can be ascertained from a papal bull dispatched that year to the Bishop of Siena by Pope Clement the Sixth from his exile in Avignon, France. The recordings in the cellar’s registers instead date back to the beginning of the Sixteenth century and vouch for the existence of a “bangle bower” with a plentiful and much valued production of wine sold on the Sienese market.
There is written evidence of such varieties as “Muscatel”, “Red” and “Cloister White”. These time-hallowed names, first given to the wines made by the monks, have been in part revived to underscore the close link between the Charterhouse’s present and past production.
The strong, self-asserting character of these wines, their com-posite scents, their robust and smart structure, their rich body al-lowing instant use and yet retaining all its persistence throughout conservation and ageing, are all-across features which can be led back to the outstanding quality of the terrain, home to the Bel-riguardo Charterhouse.
