It was a summer evening of many years ago in Piandaccoli when, while I was walking the dogs trough the vineyards, I realized the state of abandonment in which the Estate was. Many years had gone by since the last harvest took place. The sight of those places, where our family had so many memories, hurt me.
I then went to my father-in-law, who was the owner, and convinced him, in reality without much effort as he was a real gentleman, to let me bring those vineyards back to life.
So at the beginning of 2000 I decided to undertake a new path in Piandaccoli, based on a lot of passion and study.
Later on I became full owner of the Estate.
Passion
I approached the world of wine with enthusiasm and with an industrial experience of over 40 years on my shoulders. This allowed me to combine the passion for our lands with that method which is dedicated to excellence that I had always applied in my work.
It was, therefore, quite natural to address several experts: I did an accurate test of our terroir to understand which vines to plant in which plots. At the same time, I was intent on producing an elegant wine, in which the wood was not predominant and with silky tannins, therefore I asked a trend expert for in-depth research on the evolution of consumer tastes for the next 20 years and with pleasure we noted that my intentions were in line with the then predictable developments.
Finally I came into contact with the University of Florence, which proposed to me to invest in some rare native Tuscan cultivation varieties. The idea immediately involved me, because it was connected to my other great passions: Art and History. Furthermore, helping to recover the vines of Renaissance Tuscany gave even more value, enological and moral, to the new course of the family estate.
Vision
Once decided to start this recovery project, the road that emerged was clear and at the same time a challenge. Clear because all our work would have been aimed at enhancing these rare varieties: we immediately set ourselves the goal of vinifying them in purity, manipulating them as little as possible, in order to be able to understand them in their deepest sense.
A challenge because it was then a total and absolute novelty: no specifications indicated the best way to cultivate these varieties or how to work them in the cellar. There was no way to go, we should have understood everything in the field. In fact, before reaching the point of making wine in purity our wonderful autochthonous wines would have passed 8 years from the first plant. In the meantime, we have never tired of experimenting, thus formulating original blends in which to combine autochthonous and Sangiovese and arriving until even to create the first sparkling wine in the world of Mammolo grapes only. The goals achieved so far are certainly many, we do not know what the future holds, but one thing is certain: every day we will work in the search for Excellence.