ORGANIC FARMHOUSE IN LUCCA
OUR STORY
The passion for wine and viticulture began several years ago when my father, tired of the excessive care required for the small family vineyard, thought about replacing it with a less demanding olive grove. I objected. That loss would have been too great a sorrow for me. So I decided to take care of it myself. This way, I learned firsthand the basics of viticulture and winemaking, benefiting from the valuable teachings of two elderly farmers.
Then, my passion grew, and on the first abandoned land I purchased, in addition to restoring the old tree crops, I planted about a hundred vines. They were vines obtained from cuttings from a historic vineyard in Lucca because I wanted something truly typical. They were a gift from Guido and Giuseppe Cozzoli, the farmers who made Segale wine famous. They gave me Moscato Rosa and Aleatico Lucchese, as they told me, and when I left, wanting to make me understand how flavorful and fragrant these grapes were, they added, “They’re like pepper for the roast.” Segale, a small patch of land cultivated by their family for over 400 years, still has vines at least 100 years old today.
THE FIRST THREE ROWS
The first three rows in my estate are, therefore, Segale grapes. This hundred vines suggested the name of the business I had dreamed of—a dream that later became reality. The business would be called “Colle delle 100 Bottiglie.” The reason? From one vine, you typically get one bottle of wine when you don’t leave too many grapes on the plant by thinning it.
By chance, unexpectedly, a few years later, I returned to Segale. I had just decided to establish the business, encouraged by the opportunity for funding from a regional grant.
Although the business only existed on paper, a friend, an important oenologist from Lucca, was looking, on behalf of the owners, for new managers for the Segale vineyard. He placed his trust in me because he saw my passion. It was a unique opportunity I did not let slip away. That’s when the company’s motto was born, also inspired by the logo depicting a blackbird with a berry in its beak: “dum volo deligo,” which translates to “while flying, I pick.”
Meanwhile, the lands I managed or owned grew with the purchase of the Vigna del Prete, a vineyard beneath the church of S. Concordio di Moriano in Maolina, not far from my father’s home. I later discovered that its owner was related to the Cozzoli brothers of Segale… another coincidence.
Thus, passion became work, and now I hope to be worthy of the work I do.
OUR PHILOSOPHY
Abandonment—this is perhaps the feeling that has been the driving force behind many of the business’s decisions: preventing abandonment, recovering abandoned land, vineyards, and olive groves, striving to enhance our territory and landscape while respecting the environment and restoring the beauty of these places to everyone.
A project born from the ambition to create products that are the expression, in both form and substance, of a countryside cultivated as if it were a garden. Being able to say one day, “In our gardens, grapes grow,” would be a true source of pride.
Will we succeed? We are only at the beginning. The commitment is great and demanding, but we will try.
Places like Segale and Maolina are an ancient and valuable heritage belonging to the people of Lucca, long synonymous with good wine in their collective imagination.
Our restoration efforts also include maintaining some manual agricultural practices, even if they are outdated (such as tying the vines with willow twigs).
The idea of restoration, saving land from abandonment, preserving ancient practices, and valuing tradition all serve a single purpose: to resist standardization.
This journey involves choices that are undoubtedly uneconomical but generate other, more important forms of wealth for us—ones that align with three principles: environmental protection, landscape restoration, and authentic enhancement of the terroir—the Lucchese hills, a secluded, unique, and distinct piece of Tuscany.
Our philosophy holds that “good,” meaning high-quality products from the land, is a natural consequence of the “beautiful,” which it reveals by offering itself in a harmonious, well-tended, and respected landscape. This beauty and goodness naturally demand organic farming.
OUR WORK
We are fortunate that our lands lie within two historic crus of the Lucca region: Maolina and Segale. The exposure is south to southwest, at an altitude ranging from 100 to 400 meters. These are well-ventilated, sunny areas, with soils of varying composition—Segale is more mineral-rich, while Maolina is more clayey—ideal for viticulture and olive cultivation.
When working these lands, people often refer to “heroic agriculture” because machinery cannot replace all manual labor due to the terrain’s morphology—steep slopes, terraced land with narrow spaces. This manual effort requires a close, physical relationship with nature, which, beyond the difficulty of the work—or perhaps because of it—provides profound sensations, restoring an authentically empathetic connection with nature, marked by feelings of dependence, respect, reverence, and gratitude.
To improve fruit quality, we practice grape thinning in the vineyard, and to ensure typicity and a strong connection to the land in our wines, we carry out spontaneous fermentations (while controlling temperatures), just as was done in the past before selected yeasts existed. The result is a wine with a unique personality and superior quality. However, in our view, what truly gives wine its soul is not just the techniques used but the entire history behind it.
The same approach applies to our
extra virgin olive oil, made from our organically grown olives,
harvested and processed on the same day in our low-temperature mini oil mill, using short kneading times. Our mini oil mill processes olives in two phases rather than three, as in traditional mills. This ensures a gentler extraction and a less stressed product, resulting in an oil that immediately stands out in taste and aroma, preserving the characteristics of the fruit.
AWARDS
