Tuscany’s Isola Del Giglio
Giglio Island, just 11 miles off the Tuscan coast, has a winemaking history as enduring as its ancient stone terraces, some believed to date back to the Stone Age. Its prominence continued through Etruscan and Roman times, and even Florence’s Medici family championed the island’s Ansonica wine. Today, that legacy is kept alive by a group of fiercely dedicated winemakers who continue to grow Ansonica despite grueling conditions, a form of viticulture the Italians call viticultura eroica, heroic viticulture.
The island is essentially a mountain in the middle of the sea with a small population clustered in a few places, such as the small village at the marina and the historic center in Giglio Castello, a medieval castle at the island’s peak. From the castle, sweeping views of vine-speckled land descend to the Mediterranean in every direction.
Luckily, the Ansonica grape (called Ansonaco on Giglio) has learned to thrive in fierce winds, salty air, and sun-scorched earth, producing small, concentrated fruit bunches of exceptional quality, though with limited yields. The plants grow low to the ground using the alberello method, helping them withstand salty sea winds and drought.
Francesco Carfagna of Altura Vigneto is a kind of “godfather” of Giglio’s wine industry and helped revive the island’s wine culture after it nearly died in the late 20th century. His journey began in the late 1990s when he restored a vineyard on the Capel Rosso Promontory where the Ansonica grape had flourished for centuries. By 1996, only 10-13 hectares of cultivated land had remained, worked by a handful of dedicated vignerons who Francesco calls “the irreducible [unyielding, diehard] ones.” They preserved the precious genetic heritage of the old plants and passed on ancient viticulture and winemaking methods. “The old masters who never abandoned the land,” he reflects, “Are the reason we’re here today.”
Francesco’s version of white Ansonica is the hallmark of Giglio wine. It is deep amber-colored and tannic due to the purely traditional winemaking techniques he employs—extended time on stems and skins, no chemical intervention, unfined and unfiltered—a method that yields a singular wine prized by connoisseurs for its purity, complexity, and distinct character. Francesco emphasizes that this winemaking tradition is critical to getting a real sense of Giglio’s terroir.
In recent years, Giglio has seen an influx of new-age vignerons eager to take up the torch and conquer the vines. Enologist Cosimo Casini works with one of the island’s most treacherous vineyards to produce Tenuta Isola nel Giglio‘s Scoglio Nero.
You reach it by hiking down the steep, rocky hill to the sprawling vineyard of spindly vines, surrounded by ancient stone walls and ruins. Those stone structures and the uneven terrain make mechanization impossible, so workers use hoes and spades to work the terrain. Lacking in soil and water, the vines’ roots need to grow deep into the hematite- and granitic-rock-laden soil, so constant care is needed to break up the hard earth. “We’ve had to rediscover ancient methods, using dry stone aqueducts to capture the little rain that falls, ensuring we have water for the vines,” Cosimo explained.
“In the past, even though this vineyard was known for its quality fruit, it was abandoned because of its difficulty. [During harvest], we haul fruit crates up the hill—sometimes as many as 15 times a day,” Cosimo shared. It’s the kind of labor that mules once performed. “The vines are small, spaced less than a meter apart, and pruned short. This makes them more focused, with fewer but more concentrated bunches.” Unsurprisingly, Scoglio Nero wine expresses the exceptional quality that can emerge from Herculean efforts.
Among the newer generation of winemakers is Cantina Parasole’s Milena Danei, Giglio’s only female enologist. She carefully ties the vines to the cane poles, protecting the delicate buds and leaves from the island winds. After global training with renowned winemakers like Angelo Gaja, Milena returned to her family’s three small vineyards on the island, acquiring more plots to produce 3000+ bottles of exquisite Strulli Ansonaco. “I try to make fine and elegant wines,” she shared, “Shortening the macerations [compared to traditional methods] and destemming the grapes.” With her expertise, she’s a driving force in the revival of modern Giglio winemaking, blending innovation with tradition.
Like Milena, Fiesole winemaker Bibi Graetz recognized Giglio’s potential and began buying grapes from the island in 2003, eventually moving his operations there in 2015. He has a quaint bar in Castello Giglio, where guests can taste his elegant Ansonica white wines, Colore Bianco, and Testamatta Bianca. Arriving around the same time as Bibi, Tuscany’s Cantina Castellari bought small plots on the island in 2013 to produce one wine, Calzo della Vignia Ansonaco, and son Lapo travels from Tuscany to tend the vineyard, staying in one of the small stone buildings (capannelli) that dot the island, often near palmenti, large basins carved into stone in the ground in which grapes were once pressed, archaic evidence of the island’s viticultural heritage.
On the terrace of Francesco’s capannelli overlooking the sea, Francesco, Cosimo, Milena, Lapo, and Nede of the Bibi Graetz team gather for an alfresco lunch of cioppino and wild asparagus risotto. The table is lined with precious Ansonica bottles, which are poured freely despite their extremely low production. The wines reflect both the shared history and diversity of their makers. Each helps keep Giglio’s winemaking legacy alive, and their efforts are not just commendable; they are heroic.
