Giovanni Chiappini

In the 1950s, a young boy named Giovanni Chiappini arrived in Bolgheri with his family, migrants from the Marche region drawn by the promise of land during Italy’s postwar reform era. Back then, this stretch of Tuscany’s coast was nothing like the wine capital it would become — vegetable gardens, fruit trees, and olive groves shared the landscape with vines grown mostly for home consumption. Giovanni saw something more.

In 1978, he bought his first plot of land — from Ludovico Antinori, no less — becoming one of only seven or eight wine producers in what was then an unproven appellation. He was following the same instinct that had drawn the Marchese Incisa della Rocchetta and the Antinori family to Bolgheri before him: a conviction that this warm, sun-soaked stretch of Mediterranean coastline could produce wines of real distinction. History proved him right — Bolgheri is now home to over 60 producers and some of Italy’s most celebrated Super Tuscans, including Sassicaia and Ornellaia.

Today, Giovanni’s daughters Martina and Lisa carry the estate forward, working the land along the storied Via Bolgherese alongside their father. Martina crafts the wines; Lisa, a trained architect, designed the winery itself and brings her eye for form to every corner of the business. Together they’ve kept the family’s founding philosophy intact — “the land is worth as much as those who work it” — while giving the estate a distinctly contemporary sensibility.

Certified organic since 2010, Chiappini farms 27 hectares along Via Bolgherese and in the Ferruggini area, producing wines that speak plainly of Bolgheri’s terroir: the Bolgheri DOC range — Le Grottine Vermentino, Ferruggini, Felciaino, and the flagship Guado de’ Gemoli — alongside Liena, a rare, single-varietal cru series (Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot) made only in exceptional vintages, born from Giovanni’s lifelong curiosity about how each grape expresses this singular piece of earth.

This is Bolgheri before it was famous, still run by the family who helped make it so.