Carrying the Torch: Susanne Crociani’s Legacy in Montepulciano Wine
A story of fate, family, and finding one’s place in Montepulciano
Jan and Tammy de Weerd, Spoken Wines
This will hide itself!
Carrying the Torch: Susanne Crociani’s Legacy in Montepulciano Wine
A story of fate, family, and finding one’s place in Montepulciano
At the end of Via del Poliziano in Montepulciano’s historic center, there’s a wine cellar alive with centuries. The keys to that cellar now belong to Susanna Crociani. But for her, each turn of the lock is more than routine. It’s a gesture of remembrance, a return to her roots, and a quiet vow to the father and brother she once tried to walk away from. This is the story of how a feisty daughter who vowed never to make wine found herself, against her own promises, shaping some of the most vibrant, heartfelt wines in Montepulciano.
The Promise She Was Destined Not to Keep
Susanna Crociani didn’t grow up dreaming of wine. In fact, she swore it off completely—no alcohol, no vineyards, no following in her father’s footsteps. She was fiery, independent, and drawn to other passions: music, history, stories of the past told through something other than a glass.
Her father, however, had a dream. A dream planted long ago with the vines he acquired plot by plot in the 1970s, after learning winemaking in Burgundy. And her brother, Susanna’s best friend, was the one who followed her father into the cellar.
But life has a way of returning us to what we tried to outrun. When her father passed away suddenly in 1999, something shifted. “It was my destiny,” she says now. It took 18 months to unwind her old life and step fully into the one she never meant to inherit. But once she did, there was no turning back.
Susanna didn’t grow up dreaming of wine.
The Secret in the Cellar
The Crociani cellar isn’t just old. It rests within medieval vaults from the 1300s, and beneath that—deeper still—lie Etruscan caves from 400 BC. Time breathes here. And Susanna, in her 25 years at the helm, has learned to listen.
She honors her family with every barrel she touches. The wine cellar, for her, is not only a workplace—it’s where memory lingers. Where her father’s teachings echo, and where her brother’s presence remains. In his honor, she created a Montepulciano Rosso, Il Segreto di Giorgio, a mysterious blend that pays tribute to her brother with a quiet twist: a secret parcel of Sangiovese Grosso, a grape known for Brunello but planted quietly by her brother in Montepulciano soil. This wine—soft, elegant, soulful—is labeled with a rainbow. “Because the rainbow never ends,” she says. “And you can never reach the end of it.”the Rosso d’Arnaldo, also a Montepulciano Rosso wine, is a tribute to her father, Arnaldo. This full bodied, potent wine captures the strength and vision of her father.
She still holds a bottle of Vin Santo her father gave her for “a special moment.” It remains unopened. Not for lack of special moments, but because that bottle, to her, holds his spirit. To open it would be to release him.
The Vino Nobile wines, however, are her flagship wines. These Sangiovese Prugnolo Gentile based wines are grown in the certified Vino Nobile designated regions around Montepulciano. They were the wines of Crociani that we fell in love with many years ago and why we had to come to Montepulciano to get the story behind these wines. “Vino Nobile is like a gentleman,” Susanne explained—elegant, present, persistent. A noble wine from a noble land.
The wine cellar is where Susanna's father’s teachings echo and her brother’s presence remains.
Hands-On, Heart-Forward
Cantina Crociani is not a large operation, it’s an intimate, hands-on team where every detail matters. Roberta has worked with her for 24 years, Luca warmly welcomes visitors in the tasting room. Her vineyards are organic. She’s added two hectares for biodiversity—trees, flowers, life—to give back to the soil that gives her so much. Her winemaking philosophy is simple: “The wine will tell you where it wants to go.” She uses only large, used oak barrels, letting the wine speak in its own voice.
Today, she is the Vice President of the Montepulciano winemakers consortium. She is the only woman in leadership, though nearly 40% of producers in the region are women, many of whom, like Susanna, stepped in when their fathers could no longer carry the torch.
We fell in love with Susanna, her wines, and her story. We were emotionally moved by the depth of our interview with her. It’s impossible to walk into Cantina Crociani and not feel something profound. And once you’ve tasted her Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, you carry a piece of that emotion with you.
