Madonna del Piano: a Tamanti chapel and Valdicava’s Riserva
Valdicava, Vincenzo Abbruzzese’s estate on the Montosoli side of Montalcino, takes the name of its celebrated Riserva from the Madonna del Piano farm, about 500 metres south of the Val di Cava winery. Dr. Antonio Tamanti bought that farm from the Brunacci in 1839, and its little chapel is linked to a fourteenth-century fresco given by a later Tamanti to the church of Sant’Egidio.
The Tamanti years
In 1820 the Madonna del Piano farmhouse (parcel 65) and its fields belonged to the Brunacci brothers, sons of Cosimo. The tithe book of 1832 calls it “Madonna del Piano Passari, ora Tamanti”, but the “ora Tamanti” must be a later note: the farm was still the Brunacci’s in 1839, when the guardians of the young Stanislao Brunacci Corsetti sold it, with the lands of the Colombaiolo and the grain mill of San Pietro, to Dr. Antonio Tamanti by a deed of 6 December 1839, valuing farm and mill at 2,726 scudi. Scrivani’s 1841 list of Tamanti farms includes “Madonna”. A later member of the family, Francesco Antonio Tamanti, gave the fourteenth-century fresco of the Madonna and Child from the Cappella della Madonna del Piano. It was detached in 1930 and now hangs in Sant’Egidio in Montalcino. The 1820 owner of the Val di Cava farmhouse itself is on a register page not yet read.
How it left the Tamanti
Very probably by sale from the heirs of Avv. Giuseppe Tamanti, Dr. Antonio’s grandson: the Florence succession papers of Giuseppe’s son Gianfrancesco show that in 1951–52 the heirs still held the Madonna del Piano farm, with the Capanna and Canalicchio. In 1953 Bramante Martini, himself the sharecropper on the farm, bought the property, “largely for sentimental reasons”. The land register shows the Madonna del Piano farmhouse owned by Bramante Martini (with Giuseppe Martini until 1969), by the Val di Cava company from 1980, and by his grandson Vincenzo Abbruzzese from 1989. Bramante had three daughters; the eldest married Alessandro Abbruzzese, and their son Vincenzo has led Valdicava since 1987, today with his son PierFilippo, Bramante’s great-grandson. The Madonna del Piano Riserva comes from an eight-hectare vineyard below a small former church. Of the estates asked about, only Valdicava is documented as owning vines at Madonna del Piano.
Timeline
- 1820 Madonna del Piano: the Brunacci brothers.
- 1832 “Madonna del Piano Passari, ora Tamanti” (a later note in the tithe book).
- 1839 Dr. Antonio Tamanti buys the farm and the San Pietro mill from the Brunacci guardians (deed of 6 December).
- 1841 “Madonna” among the nine Tamanti farms.
- 1930 The fresco from the Cappella della Madonna del Piano is detached; given by Francesco Antonio Tamanti, it now hangs in Sant’Egidio.
- 1951–52 Still held by the heirs of Avv. Giuseppe Tamanti, who very probably sold it to the Martini family.
- 1953 Bramante Martini, the sharecropper on the farm, buys the property.
- 1989 His grandson Vincenzo Abbruzzese becomes owner; the family today.
- 2026 The Madonna del Piano farmhouse is being restored; the chapel survives only as a fragment of wall.
What survives
Brian Pasch visited Valdicava on 15 October 2026 with PierFilippo Abbruzzese. The farmhouse that Dr. Antonio Tamanti bought with the Madonna del Piano farm in 1839 still stands beside the Riserva vineyard. The family believes it to be about four hundred years old; it was built straight onto the clay with no foundation, and it is now being properly restored. Bramante’s family lived in the house until the restoration began. The chapel of the Madonna del Piano, from which Francesco Antonio Tamanti’s fresco was detached in 1930, has gone; a single piece of wall nearby is thought by the family to be its last remnant. At the crossroads below Montosoli an old signpost still reads “az. agr. Martini B. · Val di Cava”, Bramante’s own farm sign, among the names of Capanna, the Colombaio, Le Chiuse and Casato Prime Donne, farms of the Tamanti story.
More on this story: Montosoli in Tamanti Poderi.
Sources
Luisa Scrivani, 1841 census tables; Don Antonio Brandi, Studi e Trascrizioni (1832 tithe book); Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali (fresco from the Cappella della Madonna del Piano); Gazzetta di Firenze, 1847, “Avviso per purgazione d’ipoteche” (Brunacci sale of 6 December 1839, notary Mario Costanti); Valdicava estate profiles (Vinous, 2008; winespecific, 2016); Catasto Generale della Toscana (1820), Montalcino, Scarnaquoja owner register; Regione Toscana and Agenzia delle Entrate map services; historical land-register extract, Foglio 64, particella 254; the author’s visit to Valdicava and conversation with PierFilippo Abbruzzese, 15 October 2026.
This page is independent family-history research by Palazzo Tamanti, drawn from the Palazzo Tamanti storybook (October 2026). It is not written or endorsed by the winery. All Montalcino winery origin stories · Tamanti family history.