Like in a fairytale, the Castle stands out in the enchanting Chianti landscape at the end of a nice avenue lined with cypress-trees and junipers, in the middle of sun-kissed fields and vineyards. A wonderful testimony of history and man's industrious presence that, today more than ever, invites to plunge into the countryside peacefulness to savour the flavour and fragrance of wine, the scent of the cellars, the oil mills, the wood of the furniture, the wheat and the thousand scents of lawns and fields, thus making you forget the frantic pace of time beyond the hills.

Meleto welcomes and hugs the visitors, the tourists, the nature-loving people like an oasis, a parallel dimension to live in its rhythms determined by small, big millenarian customs from which still today comes the wide range of its high quality-products that are the fruits of a research combining modern technologies with deep and ancient traditions.

The massive Castle rises in the heart of the Chianti Classico, not very far from the boundary line between the ancient Republics of Siena and Florence, about 1 km far from Gaiole in Chianti. In the beginning the castle belonged to the Benedettini Monks of the Coltibuono Abbey and the name "Meleto in Chianti" is mentioned for the first time in 1269 in the precious "Libro degli Estimi" of the Florentine Guelphs as a property of the Rainerii de Ricasoli family.

Over the centuries the Ricasoli Family has enlarged and improved the structure. Therefore today the castle keeps not only its fifteenth-century massive fortifications with the imposing cylindrical tower built against the artillery but also the elegant grace of the noble villa with its furnished and decorated rooms and the incomparable eighteenth-century little theatre.

The land of the Castle stretches round the castle for about 1.000 hectares (2.471.000 acres), 180 of which are destined to the cultivation of the grapevine. The prevailing grapes are Sangiovese, destined to the production of Chianti Classico wine, together with Merlot, Cabernet, Syrah and other traditional types of vine. The soil is mostly marl, calcareous marl and alberese: it is just in this barren land that the grapevine gives its best fruits, full of scents and natural fragrances.

The names of the estates and the hills remind of a remote Etruscan and Roman-Christian history: Casi, Moci, Pieve di Spaltenna, Camboi, San Piero in Avenano, Poggiarso

The vineyard of Meleto produces approximately 6000 kg of grapes pro hectare (2.741 acres) gathered by hand and destined to the production of the three great lines of Meleto wine cellars: 250 thousand bottles of Chianti Classico DOCG,50 thousand bottles of Chianti Classico DOCG Reserve, 50 thousand bottles of Castello di Meleto Fiore.

A great wine for great grapes: Chianti Classico Castello is a modern wine that keeps a fine and elegant taste; Reserve and Fiore keep a stronger structure, with mellow bouquet and violet reflections.

An excellent Vinsanto is produced from the casks of Meleto cellars.

The production line is completed by two kinds of grappa and a typical extra-virgin olive oil.

The Meleto Castle is a castle in the heart of Chianti. It is a dream place, no more reserved only to the noble families of Tuscany but open to you as well. Meleto Castle was originally a Florentine fortification against Siena. This fortress belonged to the noble family Ricasoli, as did Brolio Castle. In 1968 the Ricasoli family sold Castle and the surrounding estate, which covered around 1,100 hectares, to the Società Viticola Toscana. In the middle of the farm, high up on the hill, the fortress seems to guard over all the estate.