The vineyards of the Fattoria Corzano e Paterno lie on the steep and stony slopes surrounding the fortified farmhouse "Corzano" in San Casciano Val di Pesa. Roughly seventeen km south of Florence, the property runs along the ancient Via Cassia and the River "Pesa" which separates our land from the" Classico" region of Chianti.
Corzano sits like a natural stone outcrop, a serrated edge along the hilltop horizon. The building was constructed centuries ago from fieldstones as a watchtower overlooking the valley leading from Florence to Siena. It grows up out of medieval foundations, possibly even Etruscan, as nearby tombs testifies to their presence in the area.
In 1969 the property changed hands for the first time in seven hundred years. Six hectares of the farm's one hundred and fourty were planted with vines in the very best positions around Corzano. At the altitude of three hundred meters they form a natural amphitheatre facing south-southwest in soil gravely in structure and rich in clay and lime.
The farm's herd of milk sheep supplied the natural manure; traditional local wine making techniques were modified and enhanced by the skills learned by the young winemakers in the Swiss wine school at Wàdenswil, near Zurich.
Our first wines were bottled in 1972. Today we have seventeen hectares of vineyard and produce more than 8O.OOO bottles. Grapes varieties run from the usual Chianti selection of Sangiovese, Canaiolo, Malvasia, Trebbiano, to the foreign varieties of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Chardonnay.
In a normal year the farm will produce one white wine, three reds and a sweet wine, "vin santo". The vineyards and cellars are the domain of Aljoscha Goldschmidt, enologist, and nephew of the original owner Wendel Gelpke.