Press Area

The Terroir:

San Gimignano

San Gimignano is here: in the heart of Tuscany

The production territory of the wines protected by the Consortium falls entirely within the perimeter of the municipality of San Gimignano. In the north-western part of the Province of Siena, where the ancient city of towers, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, stands, and where, on its gently sloping and sometimes steeper hills, wine-growing is history, an integral and substantial part of the landscape, a pillar of the local economy for centuries, as well as culture, tradition and social integration.

A generous land

It is one of the most generous areas in the world in terms of the quality and variety of its wine production.
The roots of this exceptionality lie in the particular geographical location, the favourable climate, the suitability of the soils of this “ancient sea”, and the stubbornness and tenacity of the men and women who have strongly respected and maintained this territory over the centuries with wisdom and the awareness that it is their primary asset and that, if managed with respect, it is an endless source of life.

A city of incomparable beauty

Its singularity, history, culture and fine wine production have made the art city of San Gimignano one of the places in Tuscany most popular with domestic and international tourists.

San Gimignano today

During the last quarter of a century, thanks to investments in knowledge, viticulture, oenology, technology and the conspicuous, historic, rural building heritage by the winegrowing community, San Gimignano has also become a privileged destination for wine tourism.
Care for the farming landscape, environmental sustainability, high-quality wine production and hospitality are the words that best describe what the agricultural territory of San Gimignano has to offer.
In the municipality of San Gimignano, out of 5600 hectares of agricultural land, approximately 2000 are cultivated with vines, with 750 of these hectares dedicated to the production of Vernaccia di San Gimignano DOCG and 450 to the production of the various types of San Gimignano DOC.

Orography and climate

The municipal territory of San Gimignano is located entirely on the hills and covers an area of 138 km². The elevation ranges from a minimum of 64 metres above sea level to a maximum of 631 metres.
The climate is temperate sub-Mediterranean, with an average annual rainfall of around 600-700 mm, concentrated in autumn and spring, spread over about 70 days.
Temperatures range from -5°C to 37°C.
Ventilation is good throughout the year, and fog and snowfall are rare.

Pedology

The soils are of Pliocene origin, dating back 6.8-1.8 million years.
The land used for viticulture is made up of Pliocene marine deposits and consists of yellow sand (tufa) and yellow clay, which are often stratified on more compact (blue) clays lying deeper down. On average, these soils have little stone and organic substance, but thanks to the presence of sand they are well drained.
The widespread presence of tufa and cavernous limestone substrates are the pedological elements that convey that characteristic “savoury” touch to the area’s wines.

The “hill system”

The San Gimignano “hill system” is characterised by marked differences in altitude, microclimate, exposure and composition of the active soils.
The work of each individual winegrower comes together with the different and unique combinations of these many factors, in other words the terroir, to create an element of value and make every wine produced in San Gimignano unique.

Contacts

The Consortium has its head office in San Gimignano, in the historical and hilly Tuscan turreted city, in the central point of the territory from which all the protected wines originate, in other words, in the ‘Kingdom of the White Queen’.

Find out more