Montalcino curiosities

Some things you might not know about Montalcino

• The demonym for the inhabitants of Montalcino is ilcinesi, singular ilcinese.

• There is a wine-shop every 19 inhabitants (Source: Museum of Brunello).

• There is a Museum of Brunello, on the road between Montalcino and Castelnuovo dell'Abate.

• The population of 5278 residents includes people from 51 different nationalities.

• Actually 2013 data show that almost double the national average (7.4%). Full data and analysis in Italian by winenews.

• In 1980 there were 37 Brunello producers of which only 12 were bottlers : there are now over 200 Brunello producers. The 2014 Consorzio del Brunello map can be found here.

• Brunello di Montalcino was the first DOCG to be officialised back in 1980.

• The price of Brunello vineyards varies from 300-500.000 Euros per hectare (Source: Knight Frank Global Vineyard Index)

• A prehistoric whale was unearthed while preparing a vineyard in February 2007. What was that about terroir?

• A painting by Bonaventura Salimbeni (1567-1613) in the San Pietro Church seems to depict a UFO. There is a lovely piece about it in Italian by Alessandro Schwed and a more rational English explanation here.

But perhaps most important of all:

• You can learn how to make artisan ice-cream at Why Not on Wednesday mornings.