Our story: Giachi Family
13th Generations of Wine MakingMeet the Family: 13th Generation of Wine Making 1720-2020
Currently celebrating our 301th year as a premier wine maker, Tenuta Torciano was founded in 1720 when the original owner Giachi’s family, Bartolomeo Giachi handed down the art of making and producing wine to his son Emanuele who, in turn, passed the skills on to his son Gaetano, then to his son Angelo, followed by Alfredo Romano and then finally Pierluigi Giachi.
Today, Tenuta Torciano is run by Pierluigi Giachi, from his wife Luciana and their sons Emanuele e Vittoria. This is the thirteenth generation of Giachi’s family in the wine world and they are an internationally luxury winery specializing in fine wines from long-established wine-producing tuscan region, as well as emerging viticultural areas.
What began as a family business continues to be family-owned and operated today; a company that is very much built on a foundation of integrity, high quality and excellent service. It has long been our goal to ensure that our clients are able to find through us an amazing selection of fine wines and even rare wine; but it has remained equally important to us that our clients are also always treated to exceptional service.
Behind this fierce commitment to selection and customer service is our team of dedicated and knowledgeable professionals who are passionate about what they do. We know wine inside and out and we are able to marry the needs of our clients with the fine wines in our production.
We look forward to putting our passion and expertise to work for you and we can’t wait to have you in Italy to visit our vineyards and our cellars, to live the true experience of wine in Tuscany, immersed in nature in the land we love most in the world!
OUR STORY: GIACHI FAMILY 1720-2020
Tenuta Torciano is the product of the passion and hard work of a Tuscan family for over three centuries and 13 generations. Today, Pierluigi Giachi, together with his wife Luciana Cilemmi and son Emanuele Bartolomeo Giachi, carries on an ancient family tradition.
Pierluigi Giachi does not like to call himself a winemaker, but rather he considers himself to be a countryman of Tuscany.
The concept behind our philosophy emphasizing “Handmade” and “Made in Italy” has always been an idea centered around collections produced by the soul, where careful attention is given to the finest “Quality”, “Excellence”, “Exclusivity” and “Originality” that has made Tenuta Torciano a continued success.
One of our successes that manifests itself is when the “Excellence” of a product fully expresses the meaning of the final value.
In order for us to cater to even the most particular and unique cliental requests, Tenuta Torciano has created an “Exclusive” collection of leather aged to paper product that allows you to create your own wine labels while still ensuring the highest level of quality.
Our customers are represented by a community of passionate winelovers seeking true exposure into the cultural foundation of Tuscan life. The exclusive and quality Italian products can only be found in our cellar in San Gimignano, where you can breathe the fresh air not only filled with Italian culture but Tuscan tradition.
Tenuta Torciano strives to provide the ultimate service for customers with products featuring the Chianti, Vernaccia di San Gimignano, Super Tuscans, Brunello di Montalcino, Chianti Classico, Nobile di Montepulciano and others, with the ability to be packed even tailored to the customer.
According to Emanuele Giachi, the cellar allows visitors to breathe not only the Tuscan air, but experience and feel all of the passion and love for the land and the continuity of generations.
If wine is the lifeblood of Tuscany, then this concept is understood in Tenuta Torciano, where Pierluigi Giachi and his wife Luciana, along with their two children Emanuele and Vittoria, are pursuing an old family tradition with a new art of winemaking.
Pierluigi’s passion and and life’s work are reflected in the history of the winery that was founded over three centuries ago, with 13 generations of wine production and experience running through the Giachi veins.
As his father before him, and so on, generations of experience in Tuscan production has taught Pierluigi the proper way to maintain and develop vineyards across five properties in Tuscany.
These experiences have integrated qualities found in all wines produced by the Giachi family winery that has earned top ratings in Italy and ultimately a prestigious rank in the world.
Tenuta Torciano has experienced exponential growth thanks to its proximity to the Mansion of Torri, with the Hospital La Scala and the Monastery of the Cistercian monks; these attractions, along with the Chianti and the Vernaccia wine, and the welcoming hospitality of the winery have ensured the company’s development throughout the region.
Bartolomeo Giachi handed down the art of making and producing wine to his son Emanuele who, in turn, passed the skills on to his son Gaetano, then to his son Angelo, followed by Alfredo Romano and then finally Pierluigi Giachi.
Various contacts were historically maintained with clerics who passed through San Gimignano daily in order to reach the Holy City. Influenced by this religious exposure, Bartolomeo’s niece Veronica Giachi partook in intense meditation and then took vows at the Convent of the Capuchin Nuns of the Clausura Siena, later becoming Abbess Mother Superior.
Although the years have passed, the love for cultivation of the land and production of wine, as well as the continued presence of travelers (now called tourists), have remained a constant inside the estates of Tenuta Torciano and the Giachi family.
Today the company is managed by Pierluigi Giachi, with the support of his wife Luciana and their son Emanuele Bartolomeo Giachi, directly involved in the work of the company.
Tradition, passion and instinct have been the three guiding principles that led the Giachi family to work with tenacity in wine production.
In order to continue the family tradition where ancient roots have always been an important role in their work, in 2002 the family became owners of the Chigi Tower in San Gimignano.
The historical heritage of the family has added a multitude of value over the years, adding to investments in wine-growing land to enhance the quality of the wine production, both in Italy and abroad.
Since many years ago, the Giachi-Cilemmi family have owned the Chigi Tower in San Gimignano, one of the fourteen historic towers of the medieval city that still remains standing, located in the main Piazza del Duomo.
The tower, although not very high, is one of the most beautiful in the city. It was built in 1280 and belonged to Both Useppi and the Chigi family. The first three floors are covered with stone constructed into well squared cut drafts that open to lights with low arches.
On the first floor, the entrance is marked by a portal accessed through a staircase, a testimony to the struggles of eras past in this medieval city.
Approaching the second floor you will find a narrow, elongated slot with a bow resting on shelves.
It is the height of each floor are aligned trampling of neat rows of scaffolding four holes each, equipped with shelves, which look like wooden balconies ounces That had to increase to the surface Arrange.
Medieval buildings flank this magnificent tower: to the left lies one building of particular value because of its charming mullioned-style windows that showcase traditional workmanship.
The Useppi family were powerful Sienese citizens who owned various castles throughout the Chianti region. In 1214, they finally entered San Gimignano where they settled in the Useppi Tower that resides in the beautiful Piazza del Duomo alongside the Palazzo del Podesta.
Among the various prestigous titles this family possessed, the Useppi were among various socioeconomic groups including politicians of King Ladislao court of Hungary and Bohemia, Knights of the Order of the Dragon, diplomats to Emperor Ferdinand III court, and even ambassadors of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Ferdinand II.
Eventually the family died and the official heirs of ownership to the Palazzo were the noble Chigi Saracini family of Siena. The last known representative was a patron of the arts, the Count Guido Chigi Saracini who was worthy of the virtues of his ancestors.
Today, the Useppi Palace still holds interior paintings, tapestries and sculptures of great artistic value that are unique to Tuscany. Described as a rich facade of Siena and Pisa, this is a beautiful building of medieval architecture with stylish and distinctive influences from the surrounding culture.
If you choose to visit San Gimignano, you cannot fail to visit the Palazzo Useppi!
When guests enter into the tower courtyard and off of the city streets, they will feel as if they stepped into another world. While exploring the Tower Useppi-Chigi, you will witness a small piece of historical Tuscany where time stands still.
You will be able to picture the splendor of the medieval feasts that occurred with ladies dressed in their traditional Florentine brocade robes and long hair magnificently adorned with pearls and jewels.
Meanwhile, the horseman would be immersed in spectacular duels that took place at the center of the main square just outside, ready to battle with their long lances and mighty steeds.
Each room holds a an essence of past glory, with tall and elegant, mullioned windowscapes ready to demonstrate the immense teaching opportunity that San Gimignano offers. Architecture that uniquely draws decorative elements from simple materials like brick and marble Carrara, even the arches of the mullioned windows are evident derivations of Sienese influence.
The tower, austere and soaring, features a side embellished with narrowly arched windows, originally the host to “porticciole” or additional access to the wooden balcony resting on corbels. It was here the ladies of the tower would adorn with tapestries traditional to Useppi during visits by prominent visitors including Dante Alighieri, Lorenzo de Medici, Machiavelli the great Florentine secretary of the Medici Court, the spirited Dominican preacher Girolamo Savoranola, as well as illustrious Florentine artists like Domenico Ghirlandaio and Benozzo Gozzoli.
The Towers alone exemplify the nature of San Gimignano, and together with the marvelously old and narrow winding cobblestone streets, charming gates, authentic tanks, and the houses and house-towers of the 11th and 12th century. If citizens chose to return to the traditional garment ware including the ancient and beautiful costumery, the medieval ambiance of the town would be a perfect reconstruction.
This is San Gimignano: with its medieval charming culture, unaltered language preserved in every home and down every street, and the stamp of time found on every corner all attest to San Gimignano’s reputation as the small but beautiful jewel of Tuscany revered all over the world.
The city takes its name from the Holy Bishop of Modena, Gimignano, which eventually saved the city of San Gimignano from barbarian hordes. Its demographic and commercial development was favored for its beautiful location along the Via Francigena or Via Romea, the famous road that historically connected the city of Rome with other important European powers and representing the development of the era trade in the year 990.
