Montalcino is mentioned for the first time in a document of AD 814 in which Charlemagne’s son Louis the Pious granted this territory as a feudal domain to Apollinare, abbot of Sant’Antimo. One of the names used to refer to Montalcino in its earliest times is Mons Ilcinus, which means “mount of the ilexes,” because of the trees that originally covered the hill before human settlers planted . . .