Story

It could be that the farmstead of San Polino was founded as early as in the 10th century, following the Barbaric invasions which had forced the inhabitants of the Etruscan city of Roselle to seek refuge in the protective areas of the rich and powerful abbey of Sant’Antimo.

It was most probably in this period that the first vines were planted on the fertile slopes of San Polino.
In 1581, the farmstead of San Polino was registered as one of the properties belonging to the Montalcino hospital, Santa Maria della Croce, and it is here that we find the first explicit mention of the vineyard:

…the farmstead of San Polino, with its house, its worked fields and woodlands, has a vineyard and there are, on this farmstead six olive trees…..

The medieval hospital functioned as a charitable institution which provided for pilgrims and gave assistance to the poor. It owned 30 farmsteads, houses and shops in the town, mills, olive presses and a furnace where bricks, vases and mortar were made.

From the 18th century ownership of San Polino changed hands when the noble Piccolomini family from Siena took possession of the farmhouse and its lands.

Architecturally, the house is practically unchanged, both inside and out. 
Remains of the old furnaces can still be found on the edge of forest, as can the old fountain, where in the past people washed their clothes and took water for irrigating their crops.

Today, the six olive trees mentioned in the hospital registers in 1581 still stand proudly in front of the house, and still produce the olives from which we make our San Polino extra-virgin olive ol.

Our San Polino logo is the replica of the Etruscan sun symbol found on an ornamental bronze belt buckle dating from 800BC. The buckle is large and oval and would have covered the lower abdomen of a noble woman or preistess.

The Etruscans worshiped the sun goddess, whose name was Catha. On this particular buckle the sun is depicted as being pulled across the ocean on a chariot by a water bird, probably an Ibis, towards the East, to its home, thereafter rising once more with the dawn.
We chose this symbol because of its beauty, because of the magic of using an image created by a local artist almost 3000 years ago, and because the power and movement of the sun is as important for us as winemakers today at San Polino as it was for those who worshipped it in the past.