At the beginning of the 70's my father Sergio Dionisio, a Roman lawyer, bought a small estate of about seven hectares in "Il Castagno" located on the hills overlooking Cortona; the property included an olive grove and a vineyard. The dream was, even back then, to take root more and more in Tuscany and to preserve that corner of paradise by creating a wine estate that would enhance the natural, extraordinary vocation of the territory for vine growing.
At Il Castagno I spent long, happy and carefree summers as a child; growing up I fell more and more in love with that place, with Cortona and Tuscany and decided to try to build something beautiful and good there. Having in the meantime become more and more passionate about the world of wine and having deepened the ancient history of Syrah in Cortona, I conceived the project (or rather ... the dream) to make, right there, a wine capable of competing with the greatest Syrahs in the world.
Following the purchase (in 1992) of a second plot of land in the locality "Poggio del Sole", the company has assumed its current size, and today consists of two farms, both located on the soft hills of Cortona of the ancient "Chiuso della Valdichiana" (300 mt. away). about 300 metres above sea level), just a few kilometres from each other, immersed in a typically Tuscan and particularly "sweet" landscape, among woods, olive groves, wheat, sunflower and tobacco plantations, ancient villages, villas, parish churches and Etruscan remains, on what is a sort of plateau nestled between the heights of the Casentino, those that border the upper Tiber Valley and the Val d'Orcia, dominated by the ancient and noble city of Cortona, nestled on the slopes of Mount S. Egidio and overlooking an enchanting panorama that ranges from Lake Trasimeno to Mount Cetona, from Montepulciano to Mount Amiata.
At "Il Castagno" there are today, in addition to the old family house and part of the vineyards, the wine cellar and the barrique cellar. It is here that the heart of the farm beats, which is why I decided to call the winery's symbolic wine, "Il Castagno" Syrah Cortona D.O.C., a pure Syrah produced for the first time since the 2003 harvest.
Information about Fabrizio Dionisio