Tending
Vines on a
Mediterranean Ark
On this sea-girt granite mountain fourteen miles from the Tuscan coast, man has for centuries lived in delicate, respectful symbiosis with the land.
The second largest island of the Tuscan archipelago, Giglio has been inhabited since prehistoric times.
For centuries, Etruscans, Romans and a succession of powerful Italian families and maritime republics came and went as its overlords while doing little to improve the lot of the islanders. In 1544, the fortifications of Giglio Castello – the island’s lofty main village – were not enough to deter the devastating incursion of the Ottoman corsair Barbarossa, who deported almost everyone on the island and sold them into slavery.
Under Tuscany’s Medici Grand Dukes, who took possession of the island in 1558, Giglio was gradually repopulated.
The Medici also set about restoring the vineyards of an island which for centuries had been synonymous with wine production. It is believed that the introduction of the white Sicilian variety Ansonica – today the Giglio grape per eccellenza – dates back to these years when Medici subsidies and enological knowhow revived and refined the island’s viticulture.
Today, the island’s 1,300 inhabitants are divided between the main harbour, Giglio Porto, the historic village of Giglio Castello high on the mountain ridge that runs down the centre of the island, and the seaside resort of Campese on the west coast.
Outside of these small human settlements, the island’s eight square miles are a natural paradise where hobbies and peregrine falcons hover over rocky slopes covered in lentisk, myrtle, helychrisum and gorse, amidst which, here and there, hand-tended vineyards and olive groves have been patiently conjured out of the wilderness.
Today, the island’s 1,300 inhabitants are divided between the main harbour, Giglio Porto, the historic village of Giglio Castello high on the mountain ridge that runs down the centre of the island, and the seaside resort of Campese on the west coast.
Outside of these small human settlements, the island’s eight square miles are a natural paradise where hobbies and peregrine falcons hover over rocky slopes covered in lentisk, myrtle, helychrisum and gorse, amidst which, here and there, hand-tended vineyards and olive groves have been patiently conjured out of the wilderness.
SCOGLIO NERO
A WINE
ALMANAC
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