Everyone asks me when they come to Bucine to visit us: but how did a Sicilian end up in Chianti to make wine?
My story is very particular and begins in Palermo: I was born and lived in that beautiful city with my father, a photographer from Palermo, my mother, a wonderful German woman, and my three brothers, until 2003.
In that year my family moved to Verona for work reasons. Palermo, Verona… and how did I get to Montefioralle, in the heart of Chianti?
Here the story becomes even more interesting. I am a great fan of Collie dogs and I often went to an excellent kennel in Empoli, where I had taken my puppy Oliver. Thanks to my breeder, I was introduced to Eleonora, another great fan of this breed. Eleonora, youngest daughter of Luciano and Fausta Castaldi, lived at the time in Bucine with her sister and parents (she has never been a farmer, but she has always loved her land very much!). After several phone calls, Eleonora and I finally met in person and the spark struck: after a short time we got engaged. Eleonora then became my wife and now we have two wonderful children, who grow up here at the Bucine farm.
At first, Eleonora moved to Verona. In 2016, however, we decided to move to Montefioralle, also to give concrete help to the family in the management of the farm. It was in that year that I made my first Chianti harvest and we decided with Luciano to produce and la-bel “our” Chianti Classico.
This is how I arrived, from Palermo (Sicily) to Montefioralle (Florentine Chianti) – passing through Ve-rona (Veneto). The tour of Italy to get to a beautiful place, to resume traditions, be of support to the family and be-come a producer of wine and oil of excellence.
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