The name Bolgheri evokes the poetry of Carduccian memory as we pass slowly beneath the ancient cypresses, lyrically imprisoned, eternal, in the most famous pages of Italian literature.
“What I sought morning and evening, many and many years in vain, may be here, under these cypresses,” wrote the poet Carducci (in his memory, the municipal territory of Castagneto Marittimo, of which one of the hamlets is precisely Bolgheri, was renamed Castagneto Carducci. We are in the province of Livorno, in Tuscany).
Perhaps, the same thought crossed the mind of Marquis Mario Incisa della Rocchetta when, for the love of Countess Clarice della Gherardesca, he moved here in the forties, to the heart of the Maremma Livornese, in the center of the Etruscan Coast. And indeed, he found something, the great visionary from whom everything began: the suitable land for the viticultural project of the heart, Sassicaia. A wine that, commercialized in 1968 after years of domestic care, became a legend, capable of lifting the fortunes of a struggling agricultural sector and surprisingly defeating the elite of red wines (it won blindfolded, in 1978, in London, against the best Cabernet Sauvignons in the world, including the finest French Chȃteaux).
The revolution of Incisa della Rocchetta
Together with the father of the Italian wine renaissance, Giacomo Tachis, Incisa della Rocchetta initiated a compelling revolution that made history. The other names (not only noble) that made this Bordeaux enclave surrounded by Sangiovese vineyards famous came later, in the eighties, with Grattamacco (then owned by Piermario Meletti Cavallari, since 2002 by Collemassari, alias Claudio Tipa), Ornellaia (then owned by Lodovico Antinori, currently part of the Tenute di Toscana group, controlled by the Marchesi de’ Frescobaldi), Michele Satta, Le Macchiole.
A separate case was that of the Antinoris, with Piero Antinori, who started a few years after his cousin Incisa della Rocchetta with the then Belvedere estate but later transformed it into Guado al Tasso (currently the largest, with 320 hectares). Bolgheri is a clear case that demonstrates how visionary men (and of course, women, we have illuminating examples here) determine the growth of a promising terroir.
With the highest average shelf price per bottle in Italy and world markets of all Italian denominations, Bolgheri is one of the most precious gems in Tuscan, Italian, and global oenology, appreciated by critics, the market, and coveted by collectors.
The Territory
The production area is located along the beaches of the Tuscan coast, in the province of Livorno, in the municipality of Castagneto Carducci (which includes the hamlet of Bolgheri, where the majority of wineries are located). To the east, a chain of hills runs parallel to the coast, between Bolgheri and Castagneto, and protects the vineyards from winter winds.
In summer, on the other hand, this corridor is traversed by refreshing winds generated between the valleys of the Cecina River to the north and the Cornia stream to the south. We are a few kilometers from the Tyrrhenian Sea, with its beneficial influence and the healthy breeze of the Mistral.
Bolgheri’s microclimate enjoys strong luminous radiation: in addition to direct sunlight, there is also that reflected from the sea mirror. Bolgheri’s light is proverbial, absolute, intense: even that of late afternoon, reflected by the Tyrrhenian, sparkles on this still uncontaminated nature.
A dazzling landscape, dotted with woods, Mediterranean scrub, olive trees, vines, immortalized by the strokes of the Macchiaioli (one of the main interpreters, the painter Giovanni Fattori, is indeed Livornese) in past centuries, essentially unchanged until today (here is the first Italian reserve of WWF, an oasis wanted by Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, who was the first Italian president of the most important global environmental protection organization).
