«Walking the vineyards», a simple yet intense phrase, that only Gino Veronelli could conceive and write. Three words to fully describe fully the relationship between a vineyard and the person who tends it, who inhabits the vineyard day after day. Walking the vineyards and almost being able to communicate with them; or playing music in their midst because music often says much more than words.
The second world war, the advance of modern food industries, the neglect of a farming culture that had by then become secondary to the quantities produced through intensive farming systems on the plains: when I thought of making wine in Garfagnana, there wasn't a winery within 60 km, nor a wine with a label or a faint recollection
of what had once been the highest vineyard of Tuscany.
To continue the work my father Luigi had started, I decided in 1999 to embark on a journey that could restore dignity to these old vineyard products, recovering the image of the wines of Garfagnana and the Valle del Serchio and bringing them back to their rightful place among Tuscan wines.
A challenging yet stimulating project that was hatched, grew and continues to live on today thanks to the essential help of many friends, foremost among these that of the winemaker Saverio Petrilli.
I do not think there is a finishing line to reach but I feel that I'm on the right track, and today I am happy to be able to wake up and walk these vines.