Terreno is situated in the heart of Chianti Classico, just outside the village of Greve in Chianti. Here in beautiful Tuscany, wine has been cultivated since the Romans.
We, the Ruhne family started making wine here in 1988. Since then, we have developed our philosophy, which runs through all our work. This philosophy has changed and developed with the evolution of the Chianti Classico region. Like the rest of the area, Terreno has gone from making simple table wines to terroir-driven wines where sangiovese expresses its wide range of nuances in the glass. It has been a journey, meaning adapting – and continuing to do so – and changing continually.
Our vineyards and wines have been certified organic since 2014, an important step, but we did not feel this was enough. Today we are 100 percent self-sufficient to satisfy the needs of the estate. We produce energy from our solar panels, heat from wood from the maintenance of our forest and water from our lake to irrigate our garden. We aim to pass on Terreno to the next generation in a better condition than when we took over.
At Terreno we also strongly believe in the division of Chianti Classico into 11 villages, sub zones called UGA (unità geografiche aggiuntive) in Italian. The division gives a possibility to concentrate and look deeper into the complex terroir of the region. The style of the wines from the different villages differs and each town has its specific character. Our vineyards are part of the two UGAs Greve and Montefioralle. Terreno has been involved since the beginning in supporting the creation of the 11 villages, and Sofia Ruhne is today, as the first woman, the president of the producer organisation of Montefioralle.
We are investing in the people working here at Terreno. We believe that together we are strong and all of us continue daily to increase the quality in everything we do – because the focus on details makes the difference – from field to bottle. To work artisanally and avoid additives, the grapes must be perfect when they enter the cellar. Therefore, we harvest all grapes by hand. We also do a second sorting by hand and remove any grapes that are damaged or that have not reached a perfect ripeness. We work artisanally without additives except for a small amount of added sulphur. A choice we made to ensure that our grapes can best reflect their growing area and vintage. That is why we are careful with barrel aging and our wines are dynamically elegant with great aging potential. We are glad to work with Giacomo Fioravanti in the winery. He is a Tuscan oenologist that worked for over ten years at Isole e Olena, the renowned wine producer in Chianti Classico. Giacomo came to Terreno because he believes in and wants to be involved and continue building on our unique project together with us.
Sofia Ruhne leads our ambitious team for ten years. During this period, we have adapted to current conditions, for example our pruning system has gone from standard to the more complex soft pruning technique that requires more working hours and advanced skills. We are experimenting in the cellar to better understand the terroir and grape varieties here at Terreno. We use different vessels; from oak, to clay, concrete and ceramic so that we can adapt to every vintage.
Terreno consists of 150 hectares, of which 20 hectares are vineyards and 10 hectares olive groves. The rest is mostly forest. We work with autochthonous varieties, where the king of Tuscan grapes sangiovese has a leading role. It is followed by canaiolo and colorino amongst the red varieties and trebbiano toscano and malvasia among the white.
In total, we make around 100,000 bottles per year. It may sound like a lot but is a smaller winery in the wine world where the bigger producers make millions of bottles and often, unlike us, buy grapes or wine from other producers. At Terreno, we only work with our own grapes.
Terreno’s vineyard restaurant is open from early spring to late autumn. Here head chef Francesco Galli serves elegant dishes from local ingredients and vegetables from our organic garden.
We do believe that wine, food, and beauty help making the world a better place.
Welcome to Terreno!
The Ruhne family