Stories

We start the New Year with Pope Francis’s messsage from Rome: PEACE It is the time for Peace: We are called upon to achieve Peace. A duty given by God. Peace with ourselves, Peace with every other human. Chase indifference, Take care of others. Maestro Riccardo Muti at the New Year’s concert in Vienna: MUSIC…

Through the centuries wine has always been the elixir of long life, energy, and courage. We join Alceo, the Greek poet who lived 2,600 years ago, and Horace, from Rome, 2,000 years ago, for a special toast: Hurrah! We all need a good glass of wine!…together we shall win! “All we need is love”.

The road from the north to Rome and thence to the Middle East crossed San Gimignano: the town became a sort of motel of the Middle Ages. It was one of the Knights Templar’s headquarters. Montenidoli, the hill just in front, proved to be the right place for their vineyards, needed to produce the wine…

“A wine of 37 years ago, the quality of the bottle still very high. Very gently uncorked and slowly open to air it reveals an extraordinary finess. A magic colour, an aromatic fascinating bouquet; dry mushrooms, brushwood soft fruits, lightly spiced, peppery, rose, pomegranate, maraschino cherries.  On the palate a surprising freshness, with the strength…

Graf Erwein Matuschka-Greiffenclau, the Lord of Riesling, the heir of Schloss Vollrads, founded in 963, the oldest family-owned manor in Germany, was also the chairman of VOP-Rheingau and of Weinbauerbandes. We met him during a ‘Grüne Woche’ in Berlin. In 1997 he asked to stay in our guest house, La Fidanza, for a fortnight in…

Ruggero Mazzilli “Triassico is a wine made from sangiovese grapes grown at a plot called Le Pianore of Montenidoli. At 450 metres above sea level, it is San Gimignano’s highest vineyard, situated amidst oak woods with a soil which is absolutely unique, composed of deep limestone rich in iron and magnesium. The viticulture has been…