Every June, Marquis Lamberto Frescobaldi organizes a visit to the island of Gorgona, in the Tuscan archipelago, inviting national and international journalists, part of the company staff, importers and friends.
This is a day dedicated to visiting this island where there is a prison with around 140 guests. It is the only penitentiary island in Europe.
The Gorgona project was born in August 2012.
The island’s prisoners serve out their last prison term by working in contact with nature and acquiring work experience, which will facilitate their reintegration into society once they return to being free men.
The project began with a small vineyard located in an amphitheater that faces the sea and this project is aimed at ensuring that the inmates gain experience in the field of agriculture followed by oenologists and agronomists from the Frescobaldi company. Gorgona wine is both white and red. The white was produced for the first time with the 2012 vintage while the red was released for the first time with the 2015 vintage.
The red is made from Sangiovese and black Vermentino grapes. The vineyards are grown organically and the wine is aged in terracotta jars. The white wine is made from Vermentino and Ansonica.
The vineyards as a whole currently extend for 2.3 hectares.
It all started in June 2014 when Lamberto Frescobaldi signed a collaboration contract with the prison administration for 15 years and hired and paid two inmates who work in the vineyard.
In February 2015 the prisoners, with the technical direction of Frescobaldi, planted another hectare of Vermentino with the aim of involving more people in work and obtaining better quality wines.
The sixth harvest was with Gorgona 2017 and was presented in June 2018. Production this year was 9000 bottles and the label was dedicated to the fauna present on the island, from the wild rabbit to the peregrine falcon, to the herring gull.
The labels are curated by the talented Simonetta Doni of the Doni e Associati studio who has offered to design the labels for free every year.
Every year the label changes and is given a different graphic design.
The 2022 label depicts the orchids of the island and in particular those found in abundance in the greenhouses of Torre Vecchia and Ferro di Cavallo. In just a few hectares there are many rare and unique species including wild orchids with their bright colours, rounded shapes and silky petals that thread through the blades of grass.
Returning to the visit, the whole usual group met in the morning at 7.30 in Livorno, at the port, in front of the monument of the 4 Moors and then they all went to the pier to take a private boat which took us to the island in about an hour. . I am originally from Livorno and I confess it was the first time I set foot on the island of Gorgona.
The day was wonderful, there was pleasant sunshine and air.
As soon as we arrived on the island, the new director of the penitentiary met us.
The writing I read on a blue colored wall is beautiful and significant: “punishments cannot consist of treatments contrary to the sense of humanity and must aim at the re-education of the condemned person”
art. 27 of the Italian Constitution.
We were immediately accompanied to a panoramic square where two guests of the structure offered us sweets and coffee as a sign of welcome. Subsequently we started walking to see the beautiful vineyards overlooking the sea, then continuing to walk, we saw the small animal farms, arriving at the cellar.
This walk took place along a road partially shaded by greenery. After this beautiful tour they accompanied us to a square where tables and umbrellas were placed and where we had lunch with tasty food cooked by the guests of the structure. We were all eager to taste the 2022 white Gorgona and it was served to us abundantly, in a magnum version.
It’s been a long time since I drank this wine and I confess that I was positively impressed by it.
My notes that follow confirm this.
What can I say about this beautiful initiative?
Marchesi Frescobaldi has done a work of absolute goodness by giving job opportunities to those who are participating in this eloquent initiative.
Having finished our lunch after having been satisfied, enjoying this pleasant wine, we returned to the port of Livorno all enriched by this pleasant and unique experience.
To celebrate the first ten years of production of white Gorgona, Marchesi Frescobaldi has created an exclusive box of the vintages from 2012 to 2021 in just 10 examples for the world. Whoever manages to buy one will be lucky.
My tasting notes for the wine follow.
MARCHESI FRESCOBALDI
GORGONA Costa toscana bianco IGT, vintage 2022
(grapes: Vermentino and Ansonica)
11th harvest
Straw yellow color with green reflections.
At the olfactory meeting the protagonist is the coscia pear together with the flint, followed by aromas of yellow peach, boisé, mint, episperm (sweet from the skin of the boiled chestnut), candy cane soaked in mint (so-called hard mint), hairspray hair, almond shell, iodine, eucalyptus notes, rhubarb root, rubber, starch from the cotton fabric, finishing with hints of fresh celery and fennel.
The body is medium sufficient and the wine is savory, mineral and well balanced with the alcoholic mass silenced by the freshness and minerality. In the mouth it is fat and soft and is wider than vertical.
The body fades a little but it’s still pleasant. Its intense aromatic persistence is long thanks to the citrus aftertaste of lemon peel and episperm (second skin of the boiled chestnut). In the very finale you can feel a light alcoholic sensation appearing which will disappear when the wine stops in the bottle. Wine that is drunk with pleasure and greed. (92/100)
