After much-needed spring rains, the threat of disease loomed over the early part of the growing season, requiring the judicious use of copper to protect the young leaves. In July, the weather settled into a stretch of dry, sunny days, culminating in perfect harvest conditions of bright, breezy days and cool nights. The grapes have …
Excerpts from a recent interview with Jem Macy, Founder of and Winemaker at Fanciulle Vini WHAT IS YOUR BACKGROUND? I grew up in Groton, Massachusetts, a New England, apple-farming town northwest of Boston. I attended an all-girls day school, Nashoba Brooks, which, along with my parents’ innate feminism, provided the seeds of my entrepreneurial spirit. …
Alessandro came to the vineyard barefoot and walked up and down the rows of decades-old vines with me, tasting grapes the way the pros do, munching and then spitting out the skin. It was mid-September, a few days before the harvest, and we were trying to decide which vines to clone based on how evenly …
The 2022 harvest was going to be more important than usual: I had convinced the owners of a small, high vineyard outside of Florence to sell me their grapes. In fact, they wanted to sell me their vineyard. I was tempted: 500 meters up, planted on well-draining sandstone slopes–one facing south and one west–the vines …
At a brunch party a few weeks ago, a friend said: “Here’s a question I don’t get to ask many people: How was the harvest?” The party was in London, and the friend works in tech. In Tuscany, though, the harvest is the only topic of conversation from late August until Christmas, so I wasn’t …
Whether for reasons of upbringing, experience or temperament, I am always striving—to think up and take on projects, formulate plans, aim for change; grow and achieve. As a little girl, I convinced my parents to redecorate my room, having it painted pale blue to match the canopy bed I cajoled them into ordering—the first transformation …
I spent this past Monday, a holiday known as “Pasquetta” or “little Easter” in Italy, with friends in Siena, chatting over a long lunch to which everyone had contributed: a winemaker friend of mine from Umbria brought two bottles from her estate and a loaf of their traditional Easter cheese bread, “crescia.” A neighbor brought …
I like to say that the Fanciulle wines are Tuscan wines for Burgundy lovers, by which I mean that the Fanciulle wines have a delicacy and tanginess which, while natural (and, I think, the most delicious) expressions of Sangiovese, are not necessarily typical. I am also consciously using approaches to viticulture and winemaking learned in …
Wine lovers, the press and winemakers themselves like to talk about “terroir-driven” wines, a vague expression that I transcribe as “wines with a sense of place”–only slightly less vague–but at least it gives us a starting point. Many of us are used to “varietal wines,” or wines that are made predominantly from one kind of …
The real reason I started Fanciulle Vini was to make the wines I wanted to drink. Over the years, I had finished drinking most of the bottles of a cellar of Burgundy wines I had inherited, and not only could I not afford to replace them, the wines I had gotten used to sipping with …
