Fattoria Fibbiano, Tuscany, Italy
100-year-old Sangiovese vines in Fattoria Fibbiano's heritage vineyard: 'Ceppatella'.
Fattoria Fibbiano, Tuscany, Italy
The Tuscan estate Fattoria Fibbiano is set in the hills between Pisa and Volterra, an area which boasts some significant Etruscan settlements. Its soils originate from the sea, rich in fossil shells from the Pliocene era, while its history can be traced back to the middle-ages to a document dated 1560 found in the State Archives of Pisa. Later in the 1700 the farm was enlarged to its present standing, currently under the ownership and management of Giuseppe Cantoni and his two sons Matteo and Nicola.
Fattoria Fibbiano is a farm with a healthy mix of biodiversity, starting with 20 hectares of vines, 5ha of olive groves and 40ha of arable land surrounded by woodlands. It’s in the heart of the estate that we find the 2.5 hectares of 100-year-old Sangiovese vineyard named Ceppatella, one of the oldest Sangiovese vineyards in Tuscany. Tended to with loving care, this low yielding heritage old vine produces 2000 bottles of premium single vineyard wine labelled after its namesake: Ceppatella.
“It all starts in the vineyard, its position, the composition of the soil and the characteristics that make it special and unique,” says Matteo Cantoni. “Then there is human intervention whose role is to enhance, complement and strengthen the sense of belonging, while quality is created in the vineyard. This is the fundamental principle of all the work we as a family put in.”
The Cantoni family regard the environment as an important part of a heritage to be protected. Their philosophy is to safeguard the integrity of vine germplasm by selecting old vines of historical and integral value, a symbol of territorial uniqueness. To this purpose Fattoria Fibbiano teamed up with a research project carried out in collaboration with the University of Pisa to identify alternative and less invasive solutions to combat the spread of diseases caused by pathogens and to improve the quality of viticulture and to find an ideal equilibrium to preserve nature.
“The choice of vineyards was fundamental,” says Nicola Cantoni “Our philosophy is to enhance our territory and in order to do so our focus has been on meticulous care of our indigenous vineyards: Sangiovese, Canaiolo, Ciliegiolo, Colorino, from which we produce age-worthy red wines, and Colombana and Vermentino, vines from which we produce indigenous white wines. Selecting the vines was not difficult, thanks to the Ceppatella vineyard which is the mother plant of all Fattoria Fibbiano’s existing vineyards.”
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