Across Tuscany lie abandoned vineyards, overgrown with brambles, distant memories for the farmers who once laboured them.  Troubled by the industrial turn that wreaks havoc on the land and shuns ancestral winemaking practices, Manuel Pulcini decided to fight back.  Through his Land Recovery project he has painstakingly given new life to some 2.5 hectares of vineyards, primarily around San Macario a Monte in the province of Lucca.  It’s backbreaking work, but Manuel’s goal is simple: to make minimal intervention, honest, and approachable wines that celebrate the rich viticultural know-how of this iconic region of Italy.

Manuel has always been around wine, helping his parents in the small winery they had on the outskirts of Rome.  His interest led to an oenology degree in Pisa after which he worked in several prestigious Tuscan wineries, becoming increasingly attracted to the principles of biodynamic agriculture and natural fermentation.  Eager to put these ideas into practice, and determined to promote a different perspective on wine, he began renting and restoring abandoned vineyards, working in respect for nature and free from the heavy-handed approaches of modern winemaking. In the cantina, he gently coaxes his wines through natural fermentations and elaborates them without chemical and technical “artifices.”  

In the vineyards, the old timers hang around and observe Manuel's work with a mix of admiration and bewilderment, proffering advice as they see fit.  His friends tease him that he is the “amico dei nonni,” or friend of the grandpas.  But he sees himself as a generational link, promoting a timeless respect for the land, the place, and its traditions in our contemporary, globalised world.  A connection we invite you to share by savouring a bottle of Manuel’s splendid wines!