The Casanova di Pescille agriturismo selects and labels San GimignanoVernaccia, which in 1966 was the first Italian wine to qualify as being DOC (of controlled origin) and the first Tuscan white to bear the Denomination of Controlled and Guaranteed Origin description. White Wine (the grape is called Vernaccia) is a more or less intense pale yellow colour, with hints of gold. The bouquet is full bodied, with hints of wild apple, white flowers and almond; the taste is dry, soft, nicely acidic and clean. Vernaccia is only cultivated in the territory of San Gimignano. It 's a white that compared to other whites has a well-defined character, with its 12 degrees alcohol content, and that is why as well as an aperitif it goes perfectly with fish, white meat and Tuscan bruschettas.

History of Vernaccia di San Gimignano

The origins of the grape from the vine of the same name is still shrouded a mystery. It seems the vine arrived in San Gimignano thanks to Vieri de' Bardi from the Liguria region in the early thirteenth century. Since then until the eighteenth century, Vernaccia was one of the most important products of the city of a hundred towers. Over the last forty years, also the founding of the Consortium, Vernaccia is back to its former glory. It is now the most famous white wine in Tuscany. It is served cool (10 ° C).

A very famous wine

Dante Alighieri also talks about this wine(Purgatorio XIV, 19-24) by placing the Pope Martin IV in the group of gluttons in Purgatory doing a long sentence for having so greedily gorged himself on "... Bolsena eels and Vernaccia" during his lifetime, which the Pope would have others cook for him, poached in wine.

It was the main wine in 1468 during the marriage of Bernardo Rucellai and Nannina de 'Medici, the sister of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and the latter was so fascinated by it that he continued to ask for supplies from the municipality of San Gimignano.

The famous Sante Lancerio, the bottler of Pope Paul III in 1541 got 80 bottles sent to him, writing that, unfortunately, San Gimignano produced too much art and too little Vernaccia wine.

In 1685, Francesco Redi, a naturalist and writer from Arezzo, was the first to question the theory of the spontaneous generation. He wrote a famous opera, "Bacco in Toscana" (Bacchus in Tuscany), which strongly praised the goodness Vernaccia with Tuscan enthusiasm:

If anyone does not like Vernaccia harvested in Pietrafitta,
let them be banned, cursed, and flee from my sight ...

Also, the Duke of Urbino made several attempts to plant the Vernaccia wine in his territory, and the King of Naples did the same, planting it in Lombardy, although neither were successful at producing the intimate scent and taste of this wine which originates from a yellow sand and clay soil that is characteristic in the territory of San Gimignano.