About us

Wine has been made at Montecalvi since the 1400s. Montecalvi was for centuries part of the Castello di Uzzano estate, at one time owned by Niccolò da Uzzano, a Florentine politician in the Medici era, and latterly owned by Don Briano Carlo Maria Castelbarco-Albani Visconti Simonetta dei principi di Montignano (the Count Castelbarco). It was farmed throughout this period according to the mezzadria system, by which local farmers farmed the estate for, and shared the year’s harvest with, the castello.

Montecalvi became an independent estate in the 1980s and is now owned by the Drake family, owners of Collalto in the Adelaide Hills region of Australia. We have set about upgrading and updating the vineyards, restoring the old vines (we have one of oldest vineyards in Tuscany, planted in 1932) and replanting with indigenous Italian varieties.  We are now a certified organic estate and all that we do is with an eye towards sustainable farming in the vineyard and making wines (and olive oil) that are the best reflection of our particular place in our particular part of Tuscany.

Our winemaker is Tim Manning. Tim’s winemaking career spans more than two decades. During that time, he has made wine and tended vines in New Zealand, the USA, various parts of Italy and, of course, Tuscany.

Laura Vegni is in charge of all of our bottling, labelling and shipping– if you place an order it is Laura who sends it to you.

Silvia Napoleone and Karin Vroegop run our cellar door sales and conduct all of our tours and tastings. Silvia also works with all of our restaurants and enotecas in and around Greve. Between them they speak Dutch, English, French, German, Italian and Swiss-German.

Yahya El Harchaoui is our vineyard manager. He is ably assisted by Marco Nicastro, who is also in charge of all of the gardens at Montecalvi (including our orto) and, most importantly, the olive trees.

Marco Pierrucci (Agronominvigna) is our consultant viticulturalist (ie, the man in charge of the vines). We also have Marco Tessari as our guru pruner.