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The Incisa della Rocchetta family, that today produces Sassicaia,
was a key player in the medieval and renaissance history of
northern Italy.
The fief of Incisa a substantial part of the large Aleramic
domain (the Incisa descend from Aleramo, one of the largest
landowners of the Holy Roman Empire) went from the river Pò
to the sea. The 250 square kilometers fief was rich in fortified
hamlets. Its right of coinage proves the independence it enjoyed.
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A seal from this period inspired the label that
Mario Incisa della Rocchetta
designed for his wine.
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The economy thrived on commerce
and agriculture. Incisa, in particular, prospered on viticulture:
since roman times its name indicated a territory well suited
for vineyards.
But the little state was caught in the midst
of contentions between fiefs to gain power in the north of Italy.
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The fortress of Incisa was put under siege
and conquered in June 1514 by the troops of the marquis of Monferrato,
and by the mercenaries of the cardinal Mattias Schinner.
One branch of the family that survived had
chosen to live peacefully in Rocchetta since the twelve hundreds,
dedicating itself to science, law and agronomy. |
In the genealogy of the family that is of interest
to us, Leopoldo Incisa clearly stands out.
A high-ranking official of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire until 1840, due to a severe illness, he retires still
a young man from his administrative career, and goes back to
the ancestral home of Rocchetta Tanaro. Here in the family estate,
he is able to express his passion for modern agriculture and
his œnological knowledge. A few years later he publishes
two catalogues of the precious Italian and foreign vines that
he collected in the meantime.
Today they are a bibliographic rarity and a
point of reference to anybody involved in viticulture. |
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Almost a century later, his great-grand child, Mario Incisa
della Rocchetta, a young student in agriculture, will be
inspired by those books to first transplant cabernet vines in
Rocchetta, and then in Bolgheri.
After his parents, probably Clarice della
Gheradesca, heiress to a patrician family ruling over Maremma
for centuries, who became his wife on October 18th 1930 (and
brought him to Bolgheri) and Federico Tesio, unequaled
thoroughbred horse trainer, were the two most important people
in Mario' s youth.
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Once married, the young couple formed an association
with Federico Tesio, whose wife, donna Lydia Flori di Serramezzana
had played match maker with Mario and Clarice.
They created the Dormello-Olgiata
stud farm, after the names of Tesio's estate on the shores of
lake Maggiore, in northern Italy, and the name of the estate
that Mario had inherited from his mother, princess Eleonora
Chigi, near Rome.
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At the end of the second
world war, Mario Incisa della Rocchetta and Clarice, moved to
Bolgheri where he expanded what had been the training ground
for his father in law' s horses. In a few years he turned the
large and calm farm that runs from the Tyrrhenian coast up to
the 1000 plus feet of Castiglioncello, and beyond, into an estate
that includes perhaps Italy's top training ground, and certainly
Italy's first private bird sanctuary in 1959. The "Oasi
di Bolgheri", as it came to be called, then became
Italy's first WWF bird sanctuary in 1967.
Just below the castle of Castiglioncello,
he found the "terroir" that he was searching to couple
with his cabernet. That was the first vineyard of Sassicaia,
the first, and so far only wine in Italy, that has been awarded
its own DOC, the "DOC Bolgheri Sassicaia".
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text by Marco Fini
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