The Villa

The Squirrel

he squirrel is the stem of our estate. It represents the harmony of work, environment, and the preservation of nature, as the squirrel collects and stores its food. On the Le Sorgenti Estate the red squirrel has found its ideal habitat, a safe home among the trees in the park with many birds.

Squirrels are believed to be linked to the myth of the Cosmic tree or also known as the Tree of Life, where squirrels harmonized the bad and the good, spiritual and material giving the right balance between the sky and earth.

A visit to our wine shop and a wine tasting are the right opportunity to admire the squirrels running along the avenue of cypress trees that takes you from the gate to the Villa.

History

Villa Fattoria Le Sorgenti: a secular history

The Name.

In the Florentine country side it was common use the appellative Farm Villa “Le Sorgenti“ to define what is still today Le Sorgenti. The Villa has a lot of history, originally built in 1380 it has received many changes until 1850. The name “Le Sorgenti” is a testimony to the three water springs on the estate.

Wine and Tuscany were inscribed in Albino’s destiny when his parents migrated to France in 1876. Albino was born on the 24th of July 1904 in Fleury Aude, in the wine district of Languedoc Roussilon, he grew up working in the vineyards just after the phylloxera disaster (an insect that in 1866 destroyed the main wine regions of Europe). Albino fell in love with Tuscany due to the stories told by the other migrants working with him.

Albino’s mother worked in a French factory where they coloured perfumed iris balls made in a factory near Florence in Pontassieve. These coloured balls were then shipped to the Far East to make perfumed ornaments. The iris growing business had been a very lucrative source of incomes at the end of the 19th centenary in the Arno Valley. It is surprising to think that only the leftovers of the roots were used to make the aromatic base for the perfume industry sector, while the plant was powdered and used in the Chianti wine production. Fortunately, Chianti wine making was regulated in 1927 also to avoid this practice.

Albino moved back to Parma in 1926 willing to take part at the Italian Agriculture renovation. He met his wife Dirce and they became ceramic and fine crystal merchants in Italy.

In 1974 the Italian Government repealed the share cropping system and Albino changed the conditions of his workers in the fields, giving them a regular salary and a house. In 1977 Albino also opened several olive mills.

On the 29th of July 1974 Dirce and Albino went to Gabriele and Elisabetta wedding bringing them a vine cutting of Chardonnay, one of Cabernet Sauvignon and a bulb of Iris. Gabriele and Elisabetta were married in Parma and went to Le Sorgenti on their honeymoon. They immediately fell in love with the location and never came back, although they had to go against their parents wills that had wished for them to be a lawyer and a botanic!