History
The origins of the Mannucci Droandi estate lie in farming and winemaking traditions, in practically all branches of two families. The Mannuccis were landowners in Valdarno at least from the early 19th century; from the 18th century the Droandis were definitely farmers in Carmignano. Today the estate is family-run; Maria Grazia Mammuccini, also the daughter of farmers, is the Amministratore Unico (President and Director) of the Società Agricola Nuova Agricoltura S.r.l.; the husband Roberto Giulio Droandi is the Sales manager. From the 2000 the whole farm is Organic, officially certified under the UE rules; this choice, joint with the recovering of the biodiversity in saving the old indigenous grape varieties, is the basis of our work. The target is helping in environment defence, in the climate change mitigation and at the same time to produce high quality goods fitted for representing our territory; helped by qualified staff, we are committed to obtaining the best we can from a mixture of tradition and innovation, in order to carry forward what was built up by the generations before us.
The estate today
Organically-farmed from 2000 the estate is divided into two main parts. The first is the Campolucci property (the place name is Latin in origin: “field of the holy wood”), consisting of a large farmhouse (recorded in the Granducal registry, this is the location of the winery and cellars), as well as specialised vineyards and olive groves. Campolucci is situated on the eastern slopes of the Chianti mountains (Chianti zone, subzone of Colli Aretini) at an altitude of 250m above sea level, on the top of a south-facing hill overlooking the ancient fortified village of Caposelvi near Mercatale Valdarno (municipality of Montevarchi, province of Arezzo). The second part of the estate is Ceppeto, which consists of vineyards and olive groves planted around a large, square stone farmhouse (built in the 18th century on the ruins of an old hermitage). The property is situated on the east side of the Chianti mountains (Chianti Classico zone), at 400m above sea level, on the southern slope of the hill on which the castle of Starda stands (municipality of Gaiole in Chianti, province of Siena).
The vines and the cellar
It is a company tradition to make our own grapes in to wine. Over the last ten years we have made huge investments in the vineyards, dominated by Sangiovese grapes (new planting systems with selected clones, and renewal of the older systems) and in the winery (purchase of state-of-the-art enological equipment), as well as adapting our productive mentality towards higher quality (short pruning, thinning bunches, etc) enabling us at last to produce wines for bottling which conformed to our objectives (higher quality and better expression of the terroir) and which we consider worthy of our name.
The experimental vineyard
For about twenty years now the estate has worked with the Arezzo Section of the Experimental Winegrowing Institute of the Ministry for Agricultural and Forestry Policy on an experimental vineyard was planted with old grapes varieties that were once widespread in the area and now face with extinction. These grapes have made promising progress and some of the more interesting varieties such as Foglia Tonda, Barsaglina or Pugnitello have been reproduced and planted in our vineyards for ricer, more typical blends.
