I first arrived in 1997 for a summer job, and actually never returned home. We were born in Milano and I was studying at the university there. I had just started, and we had a piece of land that my mother bought a few years earlier. And at that time they were opening the right to plant more vineyards, so we decided to start.

It was already the nineties. The area was already very known but still approachable, still you could plant. There was still an opportunity, now it’s harder.

It’s expensive, there are no more rights to plant Brunello. We are the last generation of producers in Montalcino, and many of us are not from the region. So we are not Tuscan, we are not from Montalcino even though we are very attached to the place and we’ve been coming here since we were born. And the first approach was really working, first person, and paying very careful attention to work. You’ve been to us a few years ago, so you know. 

The request [meaning market demand for Brunello] was so high that people even didn’t need to go and sell. They were staying home and they would sell it. Easy money, the easy money made them a bit ..