A place where history has deep roots

Palazzo Vecchio Winery stands on an ancient hill between Montepulciano and Cortona, in a landscape where history, land and wine have been intertwined for centuries. Once known as Villa di Valiano, this place preserves the memory of the Valdichiana, its roads, its vineyards and the families that, over time, have shaped its agricultural identity.

Here, every bottle is born from a land that tells not only the story of wine, but also of borders, land reclamation, rural work, Tuscan agricultural nobility and the passion of a family that continues to preserve and renew Palazzo Vecchio.

Valiano, the borderland and its medieval roots

Around the 1200s, the territory of Valiano was already part of a strategic landscape in the Valdichiana, set along a delicate route connecting Tuscany and Umbria, in an area shaped for centuries by Sienese, Perugian, Cortonese and Papal influences. A land of passage, control and borders, where hills, towers, rural roads and ancient agricultural estates told the story of a contested and deeply rural territory.

Within this horizon begins the story of Palazzo Vecchio, linked to the ancient Villa di Valiano and to the Fattoria di Valiano. Its dominant position over the valley made it a place capable of observing time itself: from the medieval tensions between Siena, Perugia, Cortona and Montepulciano to the great agricultural transformation of the Valdichiana.

It is not only a story of stones and documents. It is the story of a landscape that has crossed the centuries, preserving in its land, vineyards and farms the memory of what once was.

The Valdichiana, Leonardo da Vinci and the agricultural landscape

The Valdichiana is one of Tuscany’s great historic landscapes. For centuries, it has been observed, studied and transformed by human hands through hydraulic works, cultivation, land reclamation and rural settlements that shaped one of the most significant agricultural areas in central Italy.

Leonardo da Vinci also observed and studied the Valdichiana, fascinated by its waters, its distances, the profiles of its hills and the complexity of its natural balance. Palazzo Vecchio, once Villa di Valiano, belongs to this ancient horizon: a place suspended between history, nature and memory, where the landscape becomes part of the identity of the wine.

The Land Reclamation: from landscape to glass

The reclamation of the Valdichiana is not only a technical achievement, but a great agricultural narrative. It is the story of a valley transformed over time, from waters and marshlands into one of the most fertile territories in Tuscany. A long process, begun well before the modern age and continued through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which deeply changed rural life, the shape of the landscape and the agricultural culture of the area.

Two of our wines tell this profound identity.

The Vino Nobile “Maestro” is a symbol of territorial mastery of Sangiovese, of the measure and balance that this landscape is able to express.

The Rosso “Dogana” is a tribute to Valiano’s historic vocation as a land of passage, border and control, along a route that for centuries connected territories, people and trade.

For Palazzo Vecchio Winery, land reclamation does not remain only in historical memory: it lives in the landscape, in the soil and in the glass. Every wine is born from this relationship between nature, human work and the agricultural identity of the Valdichiana.

From the Spedale degli Innocenti to the Sbernadori family

In the modern period, the Fattoria di Valiano became part of the patrimony of the Spedale degli Innocenti in Florence, one of the most important institutions in Tuscan charitable, agricultural and patrimonial history. Historical documents connect the Valiano estate to the inheritance of Agnola di Ottaviano Contucci, wife of Raffaello di Lorenzo Ridolfi, and to the administration of the Innocenti from the second half of the sixteenth century.

This connection places Palazzo Vecchio within a broader history made of agricultural estates, farms, vineyards, roads, rural houses and countryside organization. A history that belongs not only to the winery, but to the very landscape of the Valdichiana.

In the General Tuscan Cadastre of 1823, Palazzo Vecchio already appears by name in Section C, known as Valiano, within the Community of Montepulciano, as property of the Spedale degli Innocenti of Florence. This document represents a fundamental proof for reconstructing the historical continuity of the place, its name, its location and its connection with the great agricultural organization of the Fattoria di Valiano.

In the twentieth century, Palazzo Vecchio entered the history of the Zorzi family and gradually rediscovered a new winemaking vocation. Starting in the 1980s, Maria Alessandra Zorzi and Marco Sbernadori began a process of restoring the cellars, vineyards and agricultural identity of the estate.

The first vintage of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano signed by Palazzo Vecchio was born in 1990, marking the beginning of a family project founded on territory, quality and continuity. Since then, the winery has continued to grow while maintaining a deep bond with its land and with the tradition of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.

Palazzo Vecchio Winery today

Today, Palazzo Vecchio Winery is an evolving family-run winery, guided by a vision that brings together wine, hospitality, experiences, sustainability and innovation. The estate lies between Montepulciano and Cortona, in a unique position in Tuscany, where vineyards, olive groves, arable land, bees, rural buildings and hospitality spaces coexist.

Production includes Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG, Rosso di Montepulciano DOC, Cortona DOC and IGT Toscana wines, created to express the authentic character of the Valdichiana and the personality of our winery.

Alongside wine production, Palazzo Vecchio welcomes visitors for wine tastings, wine tours, private events, weddings, vineyard picnics and Sunset Vineyard, transforming each visit into a complete experience of territory, history and wine.

A Tuscan story to be tasted

Palazzo Vecchio is not simply a winery. It is a place where history becomes landscape, landscape becomes wine, and wine becomes memory to be shared.

Every bottle holds a fragment of this land: the depth of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, the agricultural soul of the Valdichiana, the strength of the Tuscan hills and the vision of a family that continues to believe in the future of Palazzo Vecchio Winery.