Frescobaldi - Gorgona

Seven hundred years of history, more than thirty generations, an annual production of about seven million bottles and 1500 hectares of vineyards scattered throughout Tuscany, from Chianti to Montalcino, passing through the Maremma: the numbers of the Marchesi de’ Frescobaldi winery are impressive and already tell enough about the importance this family had and still has in Italian winemaking.

Already famous in 1300 for their proximity to Dante Alighieri, the generations have handed down over the centuries ambition, creativity and pursuit of excellence in many fields, from poetry to music and finally to viticulture, with the contribution of Ferdinando, Leonardo and Vittorio Frescobaldi in elevating Tuscany to a place of excellence during the twentieth century.

They’ve been the first to introduce – in 1855 – international vines in Tuscany (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay), they’be been responsible for the construction of the first Italian winery exploiting natural gravity for decanting the barrels (Pomino, 1894), more recently (1990s) have introduced the first blend of Sangiovese and Merlot – which takes the name of Luce – in their Montalcino estate. In short, innovators by vocation who experiment starting from a solid knowledge of the territory and tradition. The Marquises de’ Frescobaldi represent an immovable piece of Tuscan and Italian wine history, made up of an impeccable mix of entrepreneurial vision, local roots and extraordinary expertise in the vineyard and in the cellar. Today owners and tenants of some of the most important estates in Italy where iconic wines now famous all over the world are produced, Frescobaldi interpret the diversity of Tuscany in every estate, vineyard and wine.

Gorgona is a small island of the Tuscan Archipelago, home to a penal colony since 1869: a wild, mountainous, uninhabited strip of land where only the guests of the colony can move freely. It is precisely from the collaboration between Frescobaldi and the prison that the Gorgona Project was born, aimed at giving prisoners the opportunity to work and learn new professions to facilitate reintegration into society once their sentence has been served. An estate made of little more than two hectares of native Tuscan grapes such as Vermentino and Ansonica for the Gorgona Bianco and Sangiovese and Vermentino Nero, planted in a few rows, for the rare Gorgona Rosso. Spendid labels, always different, that tell the essence of the project, also looking at a different future and a new chapter of life for those who contribute to creat such unique wines.