Fabrizio Dionisio

Azienda Agricola Fabrizio Dionisio is located in the hills on opposite side from Cortona. The farm was created with the desire to bring out the land’s natural and extraordinary vocation for vine cultivation.
There are two farms on the property. Both are located on the rolling hills of Cortona in the ancient “Chiuso della Valdichiana” (at an average altitude of about 300 metres) and about 5 kilometres apart, for a total of about 15 hectares of vineyard area.
During the second half of the 1990s, the old, now obsolete vineyards were uprooted. Then, starting in 2000, they were gradually replanted with completely different criteria, materials and techniques, on both of the company’s estates, focusing exclusively on Syrah, a variety probably bequeathed to Cortona’s ampelographic heritage by the French occupation during the Napoleonic era, and thus present in the area for about two centuries. This variety has proved to be perfectly adapted to the Cortona hills and can give excellent results if grown with the appropriate care and methods, so much so that the Syrah of Cortona is now commonly considered the best in Italy.
The planting density is 5,000 vines per hectare and grape production is around 800 g per vine (40 quintals per hectare), after a pre-selection of the bunches carried out during the summer and, if necessary, a second one close to the harvest.
The vineyards are cultivated with a strict limitation on the use of chemicals and therefore tend to be organic. Every cultivation operation is carried out strictly by hand, with the sole exception of the spring topping of the shoots.
Harvesting is also done manually, and the grapes are picked exclusively in small crates, destemmed and crushed extremely softly (leaving each grape almost intact) and vinified in temperature-controlled steel containers.
The winery’s goal is to produce completely “artisanal” wines in the best and noblest meaning of the term, without renouncing the use of the most modern methods and technologies. It will always and only work manually, at every stage of production, both in the vineyard and in the cellar, with the utmost respect for the environment, the land, its fruit and its precious organoleptic characteristics.

• Hectares of vineyards: 15
• Grapevines: Syrah