San Giovenale

History

San Giovenale was born in the late summer of 2006, when Emanuele Pangrazi, on holiday with his family, fell for the hills of Blera in the Tuscia country of northern Lazio, 'from where you could see the sea'. Within weeks he had founded the estate, bought the land and drawn up the planting plan for the first three hectares. The name comes from the Etruscan necropolis of San Giovenale beside the farm.

Sitting at about four hundred metres inside a special protection area, the ten-hectare estate is worked without chemicals in a deliberately pre-industrial style. Production is tiny, around nine thousand bottles, built around the flagship red Habemus – a Rhône-inflected blend that was the estate's only wine until 2016 and is now followed across the Italian guides.