When wine becomes an opportunity for redemption. On the island of Gorgona – the smallest of the Tuscan archipelago, 20 miles west of Livorno – a social farming project is underway in which the detainees have learned to produce the wine. The island is home to a prison, the last island-penitentiary in Italy, as well as the only one in Europe, where prisoners can work in a vineyard while serving their prison sentence, regularly paid, to develop professionalism that facilitate reintegration into work and social reality.
In this corner of nature away from the world, populated by a dozen families, the prisoners work the vineyard and produce an excellent wine. The Gorgon wine, white and red, has now become highly sought after in Italy and abroad, from New York to Japan. But how did a wine produced by prisoners become one of the most appreciated Italian wines? All thanks to a well-known brand in the sector and the desire to believe that everyone has the right to a second chance.
The solidarity project between Frescobaldi and the Gorgona Penal Institute
Gorgona, therefore, is not only an island but also a project born from the encounter between Lamberto Frescobaldi (from the famous Tuscan winery Marchesi de' Frescobaldi) e Maria Grazia Giampiccolo (who at the time ran the penitentiary on the island) aimed at giving prisoners reintegration into work. From that dialogue, the foundations were born for a ten-year collaboration that still continues, it was 2012. Here the inmates take care of the work in the vineyard: two hectares of land, exposed to the east and protected from the winds, cultivated Vermentino e ansonica, bred organically for a niche production, only 9 thousand bottles the year dressed each year with a different label designed by Simonetta Doni. A vineyard planted in 1999, and subsequently in 2015 and 2018, where the Ansonica and Vermentino varieties have always been the undisputed protagonists of this extraordinary wine.
The inmates – regularly hired by Frescobaldi and with the collaboration and supervision of the agronomists and oenologists of the Florentine winery – also take care of the maintenance of the land, terraces and dry stone walls. The micro cellar has steel tanks and used barriques, two pumps and a pressing machine. Here, after manual harvesting in crates, Gorgona Bianco ferments and continues its evolution.
Frescobaldi wine: Gorgona Bianco and Gorgona Rosso
Straw yellow in color with golden reflections, the White Gorgon it is complex, in which delicate aromas, sapidity and pronounced freshness compensate for a generous alcohol content, 13 degrees, even more accentuated by the initial softness and extreme elegance that accompanies the entire tasting. Its bouquet is enveloping, delicate with hints of rosemary, thyme and chamomile, white peach and pineapple.
To the production of Gorgona Bianco from Ansonica grapes (the main vine of the small Tuscan islands and the Argentario) and Vermentino, to which was added in 2014 Gorgona Rosso, which comes from a few rows of sangiovese e black vermentino, a very limited edition, grown in organic farming and then refined in terracotta jars. The result is an intense ruby red wine with shades tending towards garnet. On the nose the aromas of small fruits of the undergrowth alternate with more structured hints of roasting and sweet spices. Good acidity on the palate, the tannins make the wine round and pleasant, sometimes angular.
Vini d'Italia 2023, Gorgona best solidarity project
The Gambero Rosso guide is the result of the work of over 70 people who for six months traveled the length and breadth of Italy, tasting and evaluating thousands and thousands of wines, this year around 46 thousand different references, of which about 27 thousand reviewed on the guide Wines of Italy 2023. Frescobaldi won the solidarity project award for the virtuous work carried out with the Istituto di Pena di Gorgona, recovering old varieties and giving birth to wines that preserve all the flavor of the island.
