Castello di Brolio

Brolio is the estate where Chianti as a recipe was written down in the nineteenth century, and it still looks the part: brick ramparts on a high spur, a neo-Gothic house behind them, and vineyards running down every slope below.

The approach does half the work. A long cypress-lined drive climbs from the valley road, and the frames along it — walking up, looking back down — are as good as anything at the top. On the ramparts themselves the walkway runs the length of the walls with the Val d'Arbia wide open on one side.

Light comes from the west here, so the walls glow in the last two hours and the vineyards below go from green to amber. Mornings are cooler and quieter but flatter on the brick.

The grounds are ticketed and keep set opening hours, and the house itself is not the part you want anyway — the walls, the drive and the vineyard terraces are. Check the season, because the estate closes to visitors for stretches of the winter.