San Donatino
In 1971, Léo Férre – the well-known French singer and poet – and his wife, Maria Cristina Diaz, bought a farm in the heart of Chianti Classico and relocated their family to Tuscany. From the start, the Ferré family took on the task of putting the vineyards and the approximately 5,000 olive trees back in shape and making them productive. The first harvests were sold in bulk until the early 1990s when the family decided to start making and bottling their own wines. Maria Cristina and her children still live at the farm today, and her son, Mathieu (Math), manages all aspects of the property, including the vineyards, winemaking, olive oil production, an agriturismo, and a craft brewery. The estate is located in the village of Castellina in Chianti in the province of Siena, overlooking the Val d’Elsa at an altitude of 420m and situated in the Chianti hills, a historic area known for its superior wines and marly soils. The 16ha of vineyards on the property have been farmed biodynamically since 2005 and they received organic certification in 2018. Mathieu aims to make wines that speak of the place, and most importantly, of the vintage. Fermentation occurs spontaneously with indigenous yeasts, macerations are prolonged, and the wines remain sur lie for several months. Fermentations are carried out in stainless steel, as is élevage for most of the wines, while the crus are aged in wood. The wines are not fined or filtered and small amounts of sulfites are used only at bottling.
