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Research and study for wine and olive oil production
In 1979 Giovanni Panizzi embarks on an extraordinary journey, buying the Santa Margherita estate just outside the ancient walls of San Gimignano. With a small vineyard of just a few hectares, Giovanni began making wine almost for fun, but with a passion and style that would soon define the winery's identity.
"Becoming the architect of my own life," Giovanni recounted, "I moved to these Sienese lands with the desire to discover my best self, convinced that at 50 I could completely reinvent myself."
For Giovanni Panizzi, understanding the territory was the first step in achieving quality. But it could not end there. He was aware that great wines are the result of research, state-of-the-art winemaking techniques and great attention to agronomic management. Vigna Santa Margherita was the local natural heritage on which Giovanni studied and experimented for 10 years before offering his first Vernaccia di San Gimignano to the market. And he came out in 1989 with an innovative product that broke with tradition and became the model for an entire appellation. The Vernaccia Green Label is Panizzi's first wine and is, today as then, the contemporary interpretation of an ancient wine steeped in history.
In the 1990s Panizzi investigates the unexpected evolutionary skills of Vernaccia di San Gimignano. And he realizes his ambitious dream: the first vintage of Vernaccia di San Gimignano Riserva 1990, released 5 years following the harvest. The confirmation of a visionary intuition, rewarded by the critics' acclaim and wine lovers entusiasm, bringing renewed attention to the appellation and establishing Vernaccia di San Gimignano as a long-lived white wine.
These are also the years in which Panizzi explores sangiovese in the context of San Gimignano territory and proposes Vertunno Chianti Colli Senesi Riserva, the first red wine of the winery. Once again the close link with the territory is exalted, underscored by the choice of a precise appellation, and the focus is on a Chianti that maintains a "familiar" style in the recognizability of the sangiovese and agile drinking.
While remaining at the helm, in 2005, Giovanni Panizzi passes the winery to the Niccolai family, with whom he shares the same vision in positioning Vernaccia di San Gimignano D.O.C.G. among the best Italian white wines. Thus the two production poles of the Panizzi winery today come together: the initial nucleous represented by Podere Santa Margherita and the land adjacent to the village of Larniano, owned by the Niccolai family. Today the company is led by Simone Niccolai, with the same innovative approach as always. And it was with Simone that the first experiments with pinot noir, clone 777, boldly began in 2006 with the planting of the first vineyard in the Larniano area. Two wines were born from the La Ventola vineyard: Pinot Noir San Gimignano Doc and Ermius, a selection of the same, which immediately received great appreciation from the public and critics.
Panizzi's strength rests on a great, competent and passionate staff that has been working with us since the first year. A historical team led by Technical Director Walter Sovran, made of people who have been sharing experience, decisions, hard work and important accomplishments since 1989. In 2018 Panizzi starts a precious collaboration inherent to pinot noir with Alessandro Cellai, a reference winemaking name Tuscany and beyond.
Discover the unique character of Panizzi wines and be guided on a unique sensory journey in the heart of Tuscany.
Loc. Larniano 1, San Gimignano (Siena)
Capital stock eur 10,000
Paid-in capital eur 10,000
C.C.I.A.A. Siena – REA 123810
P. VAT and Fiscal Code: 01142050523