Borgo Argiano wedding

Borgo Argiano is a hilltop hamlet of stone houses at the southern tip of the Chianti Classico, in the comune of Castelnuovo Berardenga.

Its roots are medieval. The houses were restored as twelve apartments around a small chapel, and the estate around them runs to more than 200 acres of woodland and vines, bordered by the river Arbia. It is a working wine estate, and its wines are bottled under the Tenuta Cappellina name.

The views run south towards Monte Amiata. The Eroica cycling route on the white roads passes the front gate.

Borgo Argiano is a hamlet of serviced apartments rather than a hotel, and that is the point of the place: a Borgo Argiano wedding takes the whole of it for three nights, and we prefer it for couples who want their closest circle living together in one place rather than spread across a resort.

The hamlet is let to one wedding at a time, and every space in it comes with the rental.

A small chapel in the centre of the hamlet, with frescoes and stained glass, licensed with the panoramic garden for the legal civil ceremony. It suits a wedding party and the closest family more than a full guest list.

The garden looking out over the vines, and the ceremony setting we recommend first for a Borgo Argiano wedding of any size.

Dinner can be laid in the gardens, in the stone heart of the hamlet or out among the olive trees, for up to 150 seated. We recommend the hamlet itself for dinner: the stone walls hold the warmth of the day, and the courtyards keep the tables close together.

The indoor room, holding 70, which carries the dinner in wet weather and the dancing after one in the morning.

A large heated saltwater pool overlooking the vines, open in season, and the pergola drinks terrace beside the shaded courtyards. The welcome evening belongs out here.

A Borgo Argiano wedding starts from €150,000, and for optimal results we recommend budgeting €250,000 all-in for 80 to 150 guests.

The rental is three nights of sole use, with VAT included:

• A weekend: €33,000
• Midweek: just under €30,000
• A full week: €55,000

May and October run 10% below those figures.

The 12 apartments with continental breakfast and daily cleaning, the gardens, terraces, courtyards and pool, the chapel and the panoramic garden for the ceremony, and a winery tour and tasting for the guests staying. Reception is staffed around the clock.

The caterer has the use of the estate’s gas, water and electricity.

Catering, which arrives with a supplier we appoint, and a selection of the estate’s own Tenuta Cappellina wines, which is bought for the event. Every other line of the budget is ours to build.

The deposit is 30% once the contract is signed, a second 30% eight months before arrival, and the balance a month ahead.

Twelve apartments sleep 24 to 28 guests, and all of them come with the rental.

They run from single-level studios with a kitchenette, through open-plan classic apartments across two rooms, to deluxe and garden-view apartments with a kitchen and living room. The Grand Suite, the honeymoon apartment, is a separate two-storey villa away from the main buildings, with its own access, its own garden and two bathrooms.

Every apartment has its own kitchen and terrace and is serviced daily. Check-in is from half past three and check-out by half past ten.

Apartments rather than hotel rooms change how a Borgo Argiano weekend feels. The wedding party and the closest family wake up in the hamlet, cook a late breakfast in their own kitchens and meet at the pool, and we recommend the villa for the couple.

Borgo Argiano sits at Argiano, near Pianella, in the southern Chianti Classico, between Siena and the Crete Senesi.

Siena is 25 minutes, Castelnuovo Berardenga 22 and Radda in Chianti 27. Montepulciano is an hour and eight.

Florence Peretola is an hour and 30 minutes by road, and Pisa two hours and 20. Both carry direct flights from London. Bologna is two hours and 18, and Perugia an hour and 42.

Rome Fiumicino, three hours and 17 away, is where the direct flights from the United States land. Siena railway station is 20 minutes from the hamlet.

The last stretch is the estate’s own white road, under two kilometres, and we plan the arrivals and the late transfers around it.

A hamlet of 28 beds that seats 150, and a party that moves indoors at one.

The music changes rooms at one in the morning.

Outdoor music stops at one and indoor music runs until three. We design the evening around that line, moving the band or the DJ into the wine lounge before one so the dancing carries on without a gap.

The wine lounge holds 70.

Seventy is both the wet-weather dinner and the late party. Up to 70 guests it works without strain, but the room cannot seat 150, so for anything larger we design the wet-weather plan from the start of the planning rather than the week before.

The caterer is brought in.

Borgo Argiano has no restaurant of its own, and the caterer works on the estate’s gas, water and electricity. The caterer, the staffing, the hire and the timings all sit with suppliers we appoint, and the estate’s own wine is on the tables.

Most guests sleep elsewhere.

Twenty-eight sleep in the hamlet. Everyone else stays in Siena, 25 minutes away, or at neighbouring Chianti estates, and we run the coaches against the one o’clock and three o’clock hours rather than leaving guests to find taxis on a country road.

Magic Day plans weddings at Borgo Argiano from the first conversation to the final farewell. The rental gives a couple the hamlet, its 12 apartments, the chapel, the gardens and the utilities for a caterer. Everything else falls to the planner: the caterer appointed and briefed on a hamlet with no restaurant of its own, the Tenuta Cappellina wines chosen, the civil paperwork done with the comune of Castelnuovo Berardenga, the rooms beyond 28 taken in Siena and the coaches booked against them, the dinner set in the hamlet, and the party moved into the wine lounge before the outdoor music stops at one.

We manage weddings here from 40 guests to the full 150. Tell us the dates you are considering and how many people are coming, and we will tell you what the three days come to.