Beyond sangiovese

Cesare Cecchi is the type of interviewee every wine journalist would enjoy talking to: he goes on a little spiel on a topic I was about to ask or clarify, as if he has read my questions beforehand (he hasn’t). Cecchi, 56, plays the enthusiastic lecturer driving our chat, and me, his captive student. At a session like this, whatever question you have on your notepad goes out of the window—spontaneous prompts are the way to go.

As co-owner and 4th generation vintner of Cecchi Family Estates, a renowned name in Tuscany, Cecchi, relishes the weight of a long tradition on his shoulders. Before this interview, he was on the phone with his younger brother, Andrea, in Tuscany, who was updating him on the harvest. “We had a very dry summer, and so we were worried that the vines could have suffered,” Cecchi reveals. “But we had a bit of rain in September, so that gave us some hope. The situation for the red varietals will be clearer over the next few weeks. Tuscany is about Sangiovese. And for us Sangiovese is a mission.”

Excerpt from the December issue of epicure.