The story of a family and its love for its land. From 1988, the year of Marco Mazzarrini’s first effort as a winemaker, to 2020 with the opening to the public of the Braceria di Poggio ai Laghi:
The Poggio Amorelli farm and the Mazzarrini family, already well known for the production of high quality wines, originally bottled in Castellina in Chianti, have been endorsed and reinvented with the skills consolidated over the years and a new enthusiasm at the property of Poggio ai Laghi, near Lake Sant’Antonio in Monteriggioni. It is here that we meet the entire Mazzarrini family, who recently successfully inaugurated the Braceria and the large adjoining area as a renovated summer space.
A substantial and extraordinary change for the large venue, originating from the increased hospitality needs generated by the Poggio Amorelli farm, which in just three years has hosted thousands of visitors, mainly foreigners, for tastings and organized private visits and which this year in particular, with an enthusiasm that immediately reveals great ability and dedication, re-lights the embers and joyfully opens the cellars and doors to the local public, with an offering both simple and original.
The culinary offer is authentic and genuine, with a party-time slant: you can order as you go in, able to choose between cold cuts and locally produced cheeses, sandwiches with cold cuts and porchetta, schiacciate, hamburgers, grilled meat and also interesting vegetarian possibilities, you take a seat at your assigned table and are served by a young and dynamic group of smiling and professional helpers. Only products from Tuscany are served, to help stimulate the local market – something quite relevant in this difficult period.
We had direct experience of it on a very pleasant summer evening and we can guarantee that the products are really good and that, as the place can accommodate hundreds of people, the outdoor space is really large and well organized so that one has the impression of being at a party, but in total relaxation, while the background music is not intrusive and there is safe distancing between one table and another.
At the head of the young and tested team of collaborators, Marco and Adriana Minutella’s children, Gloria and Raoul Mazzarrini – she 27 and he 23. Very young and focused on their goal, capable, fresh and full of enthusiasm.
Gloria has managerial skills refined by working in the field and has attended company management courses in Zurich and America, where she also travelled frequently with her brother to organize and attend events related mainly to the family’s wine, oil and balsamic vinegar, production – all commodities that we have the privilege of being able to taste here too. We learn from her that she loves to organize villa tastings, taking care of all the details of these events for small groups who have the pleasure of a tasting experience and learning about the nuances of the area, starting from tasting wines and associated products.
A chance to get an even deeper knowledge of the land and the agricultural production that characterizes it occurred during the lockdown period for all the many collaborators we met here as the emergency so reshaped conditions for the enterprise – but not the eternal needs of the countryside from which all the businesses’ income ultimately derives. And so, in the face of this awareness and the difficulty of finding external teams for the agricultural labour, all here have been temporarily re-employed in the vineyards and among the olive trees, in a rare and incredible life adventure, which Marco Mazzarrini himself tells us was formative for everyone, also for him accustomed to the land as agronomist and oenologist since 1988, a producer of wine, oil and balsamic vinegar since 1995, with a vinegar factory owned in Modena, a frequent rural visitor for work and out of passion, but above all for the many young employees of the company who had never worked on the land before. A great experience of solidarity, sharing and commitment, in the joy and fatigue of rural labour and which has renewed the enthusiasm, harmony and mutual trust of this large staff. In this way during the quarantine and before the summer space opened their jobs were safeguarded.
And if you also want to have a small and surprising countryside experience, we can reveal that adjacent to the Braceria there is a large vegetable garden, where most of the vegetables that are consumed here are grown and are also offered for sale.
Marco accompanies us on a visit to this treasure and it is like finding ourselves for a moment in the countryside, we too curious and grateful, with a passionate guide, generous with his insights. We feel optimistic in front of the abundance and beauty of the earth, awakened by a call to family authenticity that in this place you can heartily inhale.
Info: Braceria di Poggio ai Laghi, Strada di Sant’Antonio, Monteriggioni (S i)/ tel. 0577 1503339
Mazzarrini family – Poggio Amorelli estate, loc . Casanuova di Pietrafitta, Castellina in Chianti (S i), / tel. 0577 741373/ mob. 393 3313995/ www.famigliamazzarrini.it/ info@famigliamazzarrini.it