In Suvereto, a garden estate and a cellar that lives inside the hill. The third stop on our journey through the wineries we call friends, after Tenuta Meraviglia and Bulichella.
Some wineries you visit; others you walk through. Casadei belongs to the second kind. In Suvereto, in the Alta Maremma, just thirteen kilometres from the sea, it is first of all a place to be crossed — on foot or by carriage, with a guide or on your own — along a trail that reveals, one stop at a time, how this small ecosystem works. The silence is the silence of the countryside, broken only by the wind and, now and then, by the horses.
Two stories, one idea of a vineyard
The estate was born at the turn of the millennium from the meeting of two very different experiences. On one side Stefano Casadei, a Tuscan oenologist devoted to organic and biodynamic farming. On the other, Californian Fred Cline, among the first to grow French grape varieties in the United States with an attention to sustainability that, at the time, was anything but a given. From that meeting came a shared conviction: farming should be given back to Nature, not the other way round.
This is the philosophy known here as **BioIntegrale®**: biodynamic, regenerative agriculture in which every choice in the vineyard starts from protecting biodiversity and the balance of the whole estate. In the rows, which the eye follows all the way to the hill, grow cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, petit verdot, merlot, syrah, moscato, ansonica and other classic Mediterranean varieties.
The cellar inside the hill
The same idea of balance shapes the cellar, dug into the hillside on three sides and wrapped in earth and stone, which keep its temperature naturally constant. A photovoltaic system completes a project built for self-sufficiency and low impact. Inside: the barrel room, with the casks lined up beneath roots suspended from the ceiling; the tasting room with its wall of wines; and, set into the floor, the amphorae.
Because this is also where the **amphora wine** is made: the most precious grapes, hand-picked and fermented in Georgian or Tuscan amphorae following an ancient method, revived within the same BioIntegrale® philosophy. A wine that speaks of slow time — like everything else on the estate.
The frame on the hills
Outdoors, a large dark-stone frame turns the vineyards and the hills behind Suvereto into a painting. It is the right place to take in Casadei at a glance: the geometry of the rows, the green of the Mediterranean scrub, the light of the Etruscan Coast turning to gold in the late afternoon.
From Poggio to Casadei
Casadei is one of the wineries we work with and one we recommend you visit — September and October are the liveliest months of the year to do so. Ask us: we’ll help you arrange it.