In 1980, a Swiss couple on a Christmas visit to Tuscany noticed one hillside in Chianti sitting in full sun while the whole valley around it disappeared into fog. They bought that hill the following year. They liked the light, nothing more.

In this episode of Read Between the Wines, Pierre Ferland sits down with Barbara Widmer, Winemaker and CEO of Brancaia, in Castellina in Chianti, Tuscany, Italy, to ask what it means to inherit a vision and decide what to protect and what to tear up.

Barbara was studying architecture in Zurich when the 1994 harvest pulled her back to her parents' estate. She went on to study oenology, and her thesis on a newly acquired coastal property in Maremma started a one label strategy now stretched across three estates with distinct characters: Castellina, Radda in Chianti and Maremma. Where other Tuscan families split their holdings into separate brands, Brancaia chose the opposite path.

We talk about Il Blu, the wine so far outside Chianti Classico's own rules it had to be sold as a table wine and became one of the first Super Tuscans. We talk about how a wine earns its name at Brancaia, the shift to controlled fermentation as harvests grow warmer, and replanting with massal selection instead of nursery clones. And we end on a harder question: does wine, does Tuscany, still have something worth protecting.

A short bonus episode on sustainability and climate change at Brancaia is available exclusively on our website.

Featuring: Brancaia, Barbara Widmer, Il Blu, Chianti Classico, Castellina in Chianti, Radda in Chianti, Maremma Toscana, Super Tuscan, organic farming, sustainability, Tuscany, Italy.