The estate
An Italian story of vineyards, hills and the desire to create a unique wine, born from Sangiovese and passion
Giuseppe Sala hardly noticed the scorching sun beating down on his forehead as he gazed at the modest plot of Tuscan land he had recently purchased. His mind was filled with visions of lush vineyards winding along the rolling hillsides, bursting with Sangiovese grapes. Beside him, his son Fausto grumbled in Italian as he squinted through the clouds of dust to observe the stark reality…
the history
The year 1953 and the D.O.C.G. law strictly defining Chianti wine were on the horizon.
the land was nothing more than small pockets of grapes and grain, trapped in a thicket of brambles and wild plants.
Giuseppe realised that they would offer the Chianti vineyards an opportunity to introduce the world to the real Chianti… the incomparable taste that Tuscan winegrowers had created for centuries. So he moved his family from their comfortable life in northern Italy to find their destiny in the Tuscan hills.
With Fausto at his side, he laboriously cleared acres of wooded hills, wove miles of fence wire and lovingly planted the mother vines that would give life to their vineyard. The couple travelled through each village and hamlet to obtain the help of the best local wine craftsmen, experts who together were the repository of 300 years of wine-making technique in the Chianti region.
In 1974, the I Selvatici vineyard produced what Fausto and Carla consider its best fruit... their son Giuseppe, named after his grandfather.
Born among the vineyards planted by his family, Giuseppe has literally been surrounded by the art of winemaking all his life.
In time, the beaming, wide-eyed boy who enjoyed watching the men shout and sing at the harvest festival became a man who worked in the field with the same unbridled joy.
He eagerly drank the knowledge that flowed so deeply throughout the region, even receiving formal training at a prestigious oenology school in Siena.
At the end of his training, he produced a unique blend of modern technique and old-world craftsmanship.
i selvatici today
Today, he has inherited the title of head winemaker from his father, who still works by his side.
Unlike other Tuscan winemakers, Giuseppe remains committed to creating high quality wine in very small quantities, and still ages his Chianti in traditional concrete vessels, in addition to modern steel tanks.
He also celebrate the history of this storied area by continuing to craft Vinsanto, a deeply aged dessert wine favored in this region for generation, along with masterfully recreating a Malvasia Bianca that was first enjoyed as far back as 1685.
And most of all, he is driven by perfection at every stage of the process fromk the very birth of a new wine. Perhaps inspired by his family’s famous 1958 Vinsanto, Giuseppe ages the family’s signature Chianti considerably longer than required by D.O.C.G. laws, and his patience is rewarded with a deeper, more profound taste.
I Selvatici, one of the best family vineyards in Italy.
With such great care taken at every phase, I Selvatici can only release a limited number of each exquisitely detailed wine every year.
In fact, they are so finely tuned that their Chianti can last up to 12 years in the bottle, and the Cardisco can last an incredible 20 years far longer than comparable wines. It is a level of quality that is rare, indeed.
So now when Fausto and Giuseppe stand side-by-side and look out over a lush vineyard bursting with luscious Sangiovese grapes, they don’t see a wilderness. They see what Grandfather Giuseppe envisioned…
