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While visiting family in Loreto Aprutino in Abruzzo, Italy, in May, I heard about Count Sebastiano Capponi’s 500 year celebration of Villa Calcinaia, near Greve in Chianti, nestled in the Tuscan hillside, famous for its award-winning DOCG Chianti Classico in Chianti. The Capponi family purchased Villa Calcinaia in 1524.
Another glass of Villa Calcinaia’s finest? Yes, please.
I journeyed to Villa Calcinaia, about 20 minutes outside Florence, accompanied by my cousin from Loreto Aprutino, Simona Nobilio. The two of us shared a renovated sharecropper’s cottage on this country estate among rolling hills with Pio Imports Partner & Vice President Dave Dahme, one of Sebastiano’s largest importers of Villa Calcinaia award-winning wines.
We were among a small group of arrivals the day before and were hosted by siblings Sebastiano and Tessa Capponi at Ristoro Di Lamole in Chianti, located at the top of the mountain with a breathtaking panorama of the rolling hills of Tuscany. With five wine glasses at each place setting representing 500 years, we tasted exquisite rare vintages paired with exceptional cuisine.
We were joined by wine experts and wine journalists from Italy, Poland, Germany, Canada, Vienna, France and the United States. Among the honored guests was Paolo Sottani, mayor of Greve in Chianti. This year Greve is celebrating 100 years of the Consortium for Chianti Classico (1924-2024).
From left: Niccolo, Tessa and Sebastiano Capponi stand in front of Villa Calcinaia, which they acquired in 1524.
“What an honor to be included in the celebrations with proud, emotional and philanthropic siblings Niccolò, Tessa and Sebastiano,” remarked Michael Gordillo of Toronto, a journalist, wine critic and partner at Wine Align, one of the world most prestigious wine awards.
This historic villa today is 215 hectares of woodland, pastureland, olive groves and 88 hectares of vineyards. Improvements through the centuries include a chapel and the family’s summer residences. With sharecropping coming to an end between 1950-1970, the collection of sharecropper cottages are in the capable hands of Genevra Capponi, Sebastiano’s wife for more that 30 years. She renovates them into delightful B&Bs that reflect the Tuscan way of living with unique decorating characteristics and renovation skills. The Palazzo Capponi, located along the Arno River steps from Florence’s center city by way of Italy’s famous bridge, Ponte Vecchio, is occupied year-round by the Matriarch Capponi, today in her 90s.
The titles of count (male) and contessa (female) were once powerful aristocrats. They are still considered to be part of the nobility, but often in name only. With the family’s love of the land and its rich history, thanks to the forethought of their father Nero Capponi, the title is no longer passed to the elder son but instead is given to all Capponi heirs.
Sebastiano, learning the family business from his father and uncle, took the winemaking charge in 1992. Multilingual, as most of his family, he brought new and expanded life into the vineyard while honoring old and new generations of family and traditions.
According to Sebastiano, winemaking is like cooking, you are always working on the recipes. His strategy is “release only when ready.”
The wine critic Godello perhaps said it best: “Sebastiano wears the family escutcheon on his heart and carries the torch in his mind. Sebastiano is a critical-mathematical thinker but also a wine producer of existential and linguistic intelligence. In fact, his talents also branch out into the realms of the inter-personal and intra-personal. He is by all accounts, Chianti Classico’s renaissance man.”
Can you imagine a family empire that is sustained for 35 generations? I saw it for myself, at Villa Calcinaia!
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