There's a specific moment, when the sun begins to set behind the Mugello peaks and the shadows of the vines lengthen across the hill, when time seems to stand still. Here in Dicomano, at 500 meters above sea level, we're not just cultivating vines: we're preserving a legacy rooted in the beating heart of the history of Etruscan wine in Tuscany.
Walking through our organic vineyards is not just an agricultural act, but a silent dialogue with those who, over two thousand and five years ago, already understood that this land—high, breezy, and kissed by the sun—was the ideal place to grow the nectar of the gods.
The Legacy of the Velasna: The Frascole Stele
The connection between Frascole and the ancient people of the "Tyrrhenians" is not a romantic suggestion, but a reality carved in stone. Right here, in one of our company's vineyards, the famous Stele of Frascole in 1959.
This precious find bears an inscription that refers to the family of the Velasna. They were the lords of these lands, the guardians of a strategic pass between Etruria and the Po Valley. But above all, they were farmers and lovers of the vine.
Taste a glass of Chianti Rufina today at Frascole It means establishing direct contact with the Velasna lineage. It means honoring a productive continuity that has never been interrupted, where the gesture of pruning and harvesting has been repeated, almost identical, throughout the millennia.
Historical Curiosity: The Etruscans didn't just produce wine; they celebrated it as a sacred and social element. The "vine married" to trees was the technique par excellence, a symbol of the union between man and nature that we strive to preserve today through our organic certification.
Why Frascole? The "Genius Loci" between Valdisieve and Mugello
Why did the Etruscans choose this hill for their settlements and crops? The answer lies in what we now call terroir.
- Altitude (500m above sea level): The temperature difference between day and night gives our wines a unique freshness and aromatic profile, characteristics sought since ancient times for wine preservation.
- The Soil: The mineral richness of these lands gives flavour and structure, making our Chianti Rufina DOCG a wine capable of defying time, just like Etruscan artefacts.
- The Exhibition: The constant wind blowing from the Mugello valleys cleans the bunches, allowing us to practice true organic farming, minimizing intervention in the vineyard.
From Vinsanto to Riserva Reds: A Story Worth Tasting
If the Velasna could sit at our table today, they would probably recognize the soul of our wines.
Our Vinsanto, which rests for 10 years in small wooden barrels recalls the past closest to us and that of the ancients, who loved sweet wines, full of meaning and patience. But it is in the Chianti Rufina Riserva “Frascole” or in the decisive character of the “Vineyard at the Stele” where the strength of the Tuscan land is found: straightforward, no-frills wines, a faithful reflection of a territory that accepts no compromises.
Every bottle that comes out of our cellar is a tribute to history of wine in Tuscany, a liquid story that speaks of families - the Lippis and the Santonis - who have chosen to live in symbiosis with this landscape since 1992, becoming certified organic as early as 1999, when respect for the land was still an avant-garde choice.
A sensory experience: tasting where history began
Visiting us at Frascole isn't just a simple winery tour. It's a full immersion in a landscape that has remained, in its essential features, the same as the Etruscans admired it.
Imagine sipping our “In Albis” (pure Trebbiano) or the Merlot cru “Limine” Looking out over the archaeological area, you can feel the weight of history and the lightness of nature merging. For those who wish to extend this journey through time, our apartments—Bosso, Rosmarino, and Cipressi—offer the silence and peace needed to reconnect with the slow rhythms of the Tuscan countryside.
Book a tasting between history and nature
Conclusion: wine as a bridge between eras
In a fast-paced world, Frascole remains a bastion of natural rhythms and authenticity. history of wine and the Etruscans in Tuscany It is not a closed chapter in archaeology books, but it is something alive, vibrant, that pulsates in every grape we harvest by hand.
We invite you to discover this age-old bond, to tread the same land as the Velasna family, and to toast with us to the beauty of a land that never ceases to amaze. Whether for an afternoon of tastings or a week of relaxation on our farm, Frascole looks forward to writing the next chapter of this never-ending story together.
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