Cerbaiona is a cult address for many lovers of top Italian wines and one of the best wineries in Montalcino. The location has long been considered special, but it was Diego Molinari who established its reputation. Today Matthew Fioretti is at the helm and leads the winery into the modern era.

Cerbaiona is widely regarded as one of the best Brunello di Montalcino wineries. Its vineyards are unique and located on the Cerbaiona hill, northeast of the town of Montalcino and neighboring another Brunello icon, Salvioni.

The success of the Sangiovese grown at this special site goes far beyond the history of the Brunello appellation. There have been vineyards here for hundreds of years, and the wine was historically simply known as “from Cerbaiona.” The soil consists of a special limestone schist with sand content, and as winemaker and owner Matthew Fioretti says: “Almost without doing anything, you can make an exceptional wine in Cerbaiona. The location of the vineyards is so special and unique.”

It was the commitment and hard work of Diego Molinari that made Cerbaiona one of the leading names in Montalcino. After working for 25 years as a pilot for Alitalia (which earned him the nickname “The Commander”), Molinari retired from the high life in 1977 to pursue his passion for wine. In the same year, he and his wife Nora bought the estate, replanted it, and expanded the historic facility. The first vintage of Brunello di Montalcino produced under the Cerbaiona label was 1981 and was released in 1985.

From the beginning, Molinari was inspired by Biondi-Santi’s very traditional style of Brunello and believed in producing only lightly extracted, pale-colored wines suitable for long aging. He became known for his careful grape selection, using only grapes from the lower part of the vine. He was also closely connected to Giulio Gambelli, a longtime consultant to some Brunello greats, including Gianfranco Soldera and later Piero Palmucci’s Poggio di Sotto, and was influenced by him.

Gambelli advocated lighter extraction to preserve the elegance and finesse that characterize Sangiovese, although at that time a richer, fuller-bodied Brunello was more in fashion. It was this elegance in style that made Cerbaiona one of today’s great names in Montalcino.

Due to his poor health, Molinari sold the winery in 2015, and Matthew Fioretti became the new owner with a group of investors. Fioretti recognized that the winery needed extensive work and renovated both the cellar and the vineyards to modernize the estate. Inspired by Romano dal Forno in Valpolicella and Luciano Sandrone in Barolo, Fioretti wanted to bring more precision to the operation.

The soils consist of limestone schist interspersed with sand, a rare combination that naturally produces exceptionally elegant wines. Since Fioretti took over the winery in 2015, all vineyards have been replanted (completed in 2021), and he also replaced a steep olive grove (previously considered too labor-intensive for cultivation) with a vineyard. The vine material comes exclusively from the French nursery Guillaume, with eight selected clones and two rootstocks planted. The cultivation is now also entirely organic.

The winery was completely renovated, all equipment was replaced, and a laboratory was established. Since Fioretti arrived in 2015, winemaking has been adapted. Today all grapes are hand-harvested, cooled after harvest, destemmed, and cold macerated, using inert gas to protect the must. Previously he used wooden barrels for fermentation but switched to stainless steel for hygiene reasons and better temperature control (maximum 26 °C), employing automatic punch-downs and pump-overs. He carries out co-inoculation for primary and malolactic fermentation, meaning the wines enter the barrels very cleanly. He has also shortened the aging time: the wine now ages two years (compared to more than four years under Molinari) in oak barrels, using a combination of 350-liter barrels and 15-hectoliter barrels, before being transferred to cement tanks for about six months prior to bottling.

The free-run and press wines are stored completely separately, with Brunello di Montalcino made exclusively from free-run wine, while the press wine goes into the Grammatica (formerly Rosso di Montalcino). The Grammatica now also includes press wine from the M.L. Fioretti wines (a négociant operation with limited bottlings) as well as from Cerbaiona.