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I am always amazed that we have documents from the wine world that are hundreds of years old. Why were those things kept? Were tax documents expected to be kept indefinitely in the days of yore?
The history behind today’s featured wine is no different – Vino Nobile di Montepulciano!
The oldest document for this wine dates back to October 17, 1350. This parchment resides in the State Archives of Florence and is part of the Madonna de’ Ricci (crociferi) collection
Wowza – that is over 675 yrs ago!
Exciting, right? It was a trade contract between the owners of the vineyards, the Del Pecora family, and Jacopo di Vanni of Santa Fiora, a merchant.
I love how serious wine business was clearly already happening that long ago. Remind me about Montepulciano… Tuscany, right?
Indeed. Here’s a map showing Tuscany in Central Italy. You can see the Montepulciano subregion about 120 km (75 miles) southeast of Florence.
Wines from Montepulciano were revered throughout history. Pope Paul III’s cellarmaster is said to have called them “perfect wines” in 1549, while Franceseco Redi coined them “king of all wines” in his 1685 Bacchus in Toscana. Voltaire even mentions these wines in his work, Candide.
But why the name of the wine? What’s the story there? I assume Vino Nobile means “noble wine”?
Yes, it does. For years we thought the first appearance of the term was from a 1787 expense account from Giovan Filippo Neri, governor of the Regio Ritiro di San Girolamo. But in 2024 the Consorzio del Vino Nobile di Montepulciano unveiled another document testifying that the first known use of the term Vino Nobile was in 1766 by the Jesuit religious order.
These wines were exported to America in 1828 according to the Agrarian Journal of Tuscany. Thomas Jefferson, who was a known wino (like us!), received “473 bottles of Montepulciano” in November 1805. Jefferson’s letter to Thomas Appleton the following April states that those 473 bottles were truly the best he had ever yet received. He requests another 400 bottles annually, specifying that these future wine shipments should “be confined to this crop.” This crop referred to grapes grown in ancient Jesuit vineyards - information provided by Appleton in previous communications, according to Jefferson.
While the term “Vino Nobile” was not used in the letter, in seeing they were from the Jesuit vineyards I’m willing to bet the wine was in fact what would be considered true Vino Nobile di Montepulciano!
Fun fact, Jefferson had the worst spelling, ancient was spelled antient and the word received was misspelled as recieved.
I before E except after C, Mr. President!
Regardless he was clearly a big fan! If the wine is good enough for the third president of the United States, it is good enough for me! Let’s get to today’s wine!
Let’s!
You may recall my first Vino Nobile di Montepulciano (VNDM) featured in this article here. Today’s wine is very different from the previously featured wine. The reasons are multifactorial, likely a combination of the subregion’s variation in elevation from 250-600 m, the soils which vary from sandy to cooler clay, and winemaking techniques.
Got it! So how are the wines different?
The Manvi VNDM featured last time was extremely elegant, and since I had assumed that this was a classic style of VNDM (we don’t have that many in my market), I assumed this one would be similar! I can still remember my internal dialogue after the first sip of today’s featured VNDM from Le Bèrne:
“Did I just brush my teeth or chew gum? This wine is significantly more tannic than expected.”
No.
“Oh I must have had coffee recently and not consumed anything afterwards, making my palate more sensitive to the tannin’s drying effects.”
Again, no.
Okay?
Another sip consumed. Then a swish, swish, swishing of wine to cleanse my palate with wine. Then another sip.
This one is clearly different then.
Well, this is FUN!
We sold at lot of this wine last fall and last Christmas season after it was featured at Cork’s Fancy Friday tasting. So, I knew this was a wine our customers responded to well.
So, if you described the last VNDM as elegant, which is characterized as harmonious and balanced, does it mean that this new one is unbalanced and inharmonious? –That is not great….
Let’s frame it in terms of the personalities of the people in your life. Some people are even keeled and steady while others are volatile and unpredictable. You may have a preference for a certain personality in your life as it perhaps meshes more with yours, but wouldn’t life be boring if there was only one type of personality? And just because a wine is elegant doesn’t mean it has no character.
Translation: It takes a village to have an interesting wine life!
Well said. Did you just come up with that? LOL. I cannot top that. So, let’s end here. Scroll down for the featured wine’s description and paring ideas along with past Shade of Grapes related articles.
Salute!
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Le Bèrne Vino Nobile di Montepulciano 2023 from Montepulciano, Central Italy
Style: Full body old world red wine
Variety(ies): 100% Sangiovese
This fresh structured wine has fruit notes of sour red cherry, black cherry, blueberry, blackberry, as well as flavours of thyme and forest floor. The fine powdering texture of the high quality ripe tannins gives this wine loads of character, and the persistent finish keeps you coming back for more!
Best pairings: Veal Parmesan, Porchetta with herbal rub, Pappardelle with meat ragu, Wild mushroom and fennel-sausage pizza, Roasted butternut squash, sage, and hazelnut risotto, Cheeses: Aged Pecorino and Parmigiano-Reggiano,
Serving Temperature: 16 - 18 degrees Celsius
Serving Tips: Decant for a minimum of 30 minutes
Price: ~$43 Cdn
Relevant Shades of Grape links: Keep scrolling
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LINKS TO RELEVANT PAST SHADES OF GRAPE ARTICLES:
SOURCES:
Agricultura.it, 2023. La genesi della tracciabilità. Il Vino Nobile di Montepulciano nella storia: del 1350 uno dei primi documenti al mondo conservato all’Archivio di Stato di Firenze. [online] Available at: Agricultura.it [Accessed 8 October 2026].
Agricultura.it, 2024. Vino Nobile: è del 1766 l’origine del nome. Lo riporta un documento dell’archivio dei Gesuiti di Montepulciano. [online] Available at: Agricultura.it [Accessed 8 October 2026].
ASA – Associazione Stampa Agroalimentare Italiana, 2023. Pergamena del 1350 testimonia distretto Montepulciano. [online] Available at: ASA Press [Accessed 8 October 2026].
Consorzio del Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, 2023. Una pergamena del 1350: a Montepulciano la genesi della tracciabilità del vino. [online] Available at: Consorzio del Vino Nobile di Montepulciano [Accessed 8 October 2026].
European Commission, 2025. Publication of the communication of approval of a standard amendment to a product specification of a geographical indication in accordance with Article 5(4) of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/27. [online] EUR-Lex. Available at: EUR-Lex [Accessed 8 October 2026].
Harding, J. and Robinson, J., 2023. The Oxford companion to wine. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jefferson, T., 1806. From Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Appleton, 29 April 1806. [online] Founders Online, National Archives. Available at: Founders Online [Accessed 8 October 2026].
Wine & Spirit Education Trust, 2025. D3: Wines of the World – An accompaniment to the WSET Level 4 Diploma in Wines. Version 1.2. London: Wine & Spirit Education Trust.