Alessandro Tofanari

Poggibonsi (SI) - TUSCANY

Husband and wife duo, Alessandro Tofanari and Simona Orsini, have been producing wine in the San Gimignano area of Tuscany for over two decades. They started the winery project in 2001 founding the perfect plot of land nearly 10 years earlier, but it took years of convincing the owner to sell him Podere La Castellaccia outside of the famous Tuscan hill town of San Gimignano. 

From the Estruscan times in this area of Tuscany, vines were grown together with fruit orchards, were the fruit tree itself was the support for the vines. This technique, called “vigna maritata”, has gone almost forgotten until recent years. Alessandro has recently started working with a small plot planted this way. Between rows of fruit trees, which were around 10 metres wide, vegetables and grains used to be planted.

From the 1970s onwards, new and more modern vineyards were financed, and most of them were replaced by monocultures of grains, and to create fields and vineyards that could be worked mechanically. Today vineyards in Tuscany are around 50 years old, as the majority of them were planted in the 1970s.

Together they tend a few plots, including 2.3ha in Poggibonsi planted on predominantly sandy soils with a portion of clay and marine sediments, as well as 2ha in Colle Val d’Elsa, planted in 1946. Here the soil is mostly clay with some sand, at around 300 meters above sea level. In San Giminiano around 5ha, divided in two different plots. The varieties Alessandro and Simona work with are Sangiovese, Trebbiano Toscano, Canaiolo, Colorino, Malvasia Toscana and, of course, Vernaccia.

Their approach is one of low intervention, both in the vineyard and the cellar, but also revisiting ancient growing techniques and wine making styles.

The goal of Alessandro and Simona is to work together with nature, respecting the local tradition, and following historical viticulture techniques, which were almost forgotten.