Wine – Gabriele Buondonno – Castellina in Chianti
The Chianti classico wine by Gabriele Buondonno
The farm known as Casavecchia alla Piazza appears clearly on the maps of the “Capitani di Parte Guelfa” in 1549 and is marked as the “place of Lionardo Buonarroti”, nephew to Michelangelo.
From the letters that passed between the uncle - 74 years old and living in Rome - and his nephew, we learn that the farm was bought by Michelangelo and that even then the wine they produced already had an excellent reputation: “ I would rather have two barrels of Trebbiano than eight shirts” Michelangelo writes to Leonardo, adding that he needs them as a gift for the Pope.
Gabriele Buondonno and Valeria Sodano are originally from Naples and are both agronomists. They bought the farm in 1988 and since then we have dedicated themselves to agriculture, putting all their energy and determination into creating a small farm, where we use organic methods to produce quality wines, whilst also offering people the chance to spend their holidays in close contact with the natural world.
The farm is in the Chianti hills, halfway between Florence and Siena, and is surrounded by woods, vineyards and olive groves. It covers approximately 20 hectares, of which 8 are vineyards and 4 are olive groves, while the remainder is woodland and pasture.
Right from the start they were attracted towards the use of organic methods as they seemed then, and still do now, to be the best way to “tiptoe” into this environment without upsetting the existing balance of nature.