The quiet quarter
West of the Chiantigiana there is a whole half of Chianti that the coaches never reach.
Chianti Classico is eight communes, but most visitors see one road. The SR222 runs Florence to Siena through Greve, Panzano, Castellina — and because the postcard was taken there, that is where everyone goes.
West of it lies San Casciano, Tavarnelle, Barberino, San Donato in Poggio: rolling, wooded, thick with vineyards, and comparatively empty. Isole e Olena is here, making one of Italy's great Sangioveses. So is Passignano, where an abbey sits at the end of a cypress avenue that could stand in for every Tuscan cliché and still stops you dead.
The estates here are smaller and stranger. Podere San Pierino makes about five thousand bottles a year and the family will pour them for you at a kitchen table. Castelvecchio is run by a brother and sister and closes at weekends, which tells you everything about who it is for.
The reason to come is not that it is better. It is that at four o'clock on a Tuesday in May you can taste at three estates and not queue once, and eat at a table in San Casciano where the room is speaking Italian.
Go for a day. Start at Poggio Torselli, work down through Passignano, and be at Casa Sola by five.
Every place we mention is on the map, with what's open today.
Plan my day