The cathedra

To reach the De’ Ricci Cantina there are two entrances: from Via Ricci or from Via di Collazzi. Via Ricci is situated at the highest part of the city, near to the Piazza Grande and you can access the Cantine via a monumental equestrian staircase, with its impressive brick texture.

From here you descend in sacred silence to the central part of the amazing cellar, characterized by a dense texture of terracotta. The cellar is subdivided into three longitudinal aisles where massive pillars (6.70mt) support immense cross vaulted arches, which make it resemble a Roman-Gothic Cathedral.
The spectacular dimensions of the building, the slender but at the same time powerful proportions, located below the so called Sasso of Montepulciano, the tufa soil in which the cellar was dug, combined with a precise ventilation system, allows the wine to be maintained at an ideal constant temperature and humidity all year.

Respecting the philosophy of great red wines, and the terms defined for the aging in wood here we find rows of enormous Slavonian oak barrels, perfectly conserved, where lie thousands of hectolitres of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, and other rows with dozens of tonneaux and barrique barrels made of quality French wood.

In the other areas of the historic cellar one is pushed and squeezed gradually into the buried depths of the sandy tufa to penetrate into the twilight, suggestive paths of tunnels have been created from which fossils have been found denoting its very ancient origins.