Brief History of our Farm
The I Sodi farm was purchased by the Casini family in 1973
Ivo, father of the three brothers who currently own the farm, Giancarlo, Danilo e Franco, was a native of the nearby village of Monti. Being profoundly knowledgeable about the area and its particular characteristics, he had been thinking for some time about buying I Sodi, a property owned by the Arezzo Archbishop’s administration which had lain abandoned for many years. His dream, together with that of the three brothers, was to become independent producers of top-quality wine in addition to selling wine, a family tradition now in its second generation. This desire to become wine producers was the impulse which inspired the purchase of the farm and the start of work to restore it.
The choice of this location turned out to be a very fortuitous one, given its perfect exposure to the sun, for the vineyards sun-kissed from dawn to dusk. The softly inclined hills create no disadvantaged areas and the land enjoys an ideal micro-climate for grapes, where the sheltered hills at north-east balance the gentle downward slope towards south-east, practically eliminating the risk of late frosts while at the same time creating a daytime/nighttime change in temperature perfectly suited to the preservation of the grapes.
The land is comprised of an excellent stoney soil skeleton (Alberese and Galestro) combined with a wide presence of small veins of water close to the surface which, even in the driest periods, manage very well to relieve the stress caused by the heat.
The restoration work began with the planting, over the course of four years, of nine hectares of vineyards and three hectares of olive groves. The farm’s first wine was bottled in 1978; that was also the year in which work began to on the cellars, starting with the renovation of the old rooms which already began dedicated to that purpose, as well as the preparation of other rooms. In 1982 work began on an new and more spacious building dedicated exclusively to the bottling and stocking of the finished product.
Between 1995 and 1996 all of the barrels of the cellar were replaced in order to further improve the quality of the the wine, continuing the practice of using the “big” barrels (40 hectoliters), which had always been traditionally employed in this area. Over the last few years, we have also begun to age the best wines in oak kegs with a smaller capacity (Chianti Classico Riserva and Supertuscans).
