In Carmignano wine has been produced since Etruscan and Roman times, as evidenced by the discovery of jars of wine in some Etruscan tombs and the assignment by Caesar to his veterans, between 50 and 60 BC, of certain lands between Arno and Ombrone, grown already at that time with vines.
In the archives of the state of Florence, moreover, a parchment dated 804 was found: it is a lease contract documenting that already 1,200 years ago in Carmignano olive groves and vines were cultivated.
At the end of the fourteenth century Datini bought at a high price the Carmignano for his winery in Prato and in the seventeenth century it was celebrated by Redi as a wine worthy of Jupiter.
In addition, Carmignano can be proud to have been selected by the Grand Duke Cosimo III De Medici (in 1716) as one of the 4 areas with viticultural vocation in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. The motu proprio Decree and the Notice, in effect, regulated with precise rules production, the geographical limits, the trade of wines produced in these areas, creating the first D.O.C. in the world.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the winery of the Marchese Niccolini company produced and exported Carmignano.
Then came a period of eclipse. In the 30s of the latest century, the ancient D.O.C. of the Medici was incorporated in the Chianti Montalbano D.O.C. The return to the Carmignano designation represented for the Carmignano’s producers the recovery of a historical–territorial identity of their wine and it was a long and difficult conquest to whose realization Ugo Contini Bonacossi, of Tenuta di Capezzana, along with engineer Cianchi of Poggiolo, and the then mayor of Carmignano Dr. Lenzi, gave a fundamental contribution. In 1975 the Carmignano D.O.C. was finally recognized, retroactive – for the old wine – until the 1969 vintage.
In 1990 the D.O.C.G. retroactive to 1988 was obtained.
But it is not just history. The presence of some varieties, that in the rest of Tuscany are not very frequent, or even strangers, make this wine very different from Chianti for precise organoleptic qualities.
