The Four Seasons are the guardians of the seventeenth-century villa at the top of a hill facing
Cortona. Terracotta women, supple body movements to tell us that here the seasons are not just a matter of calendar days and months, but something more: the key that opens the door of the Il Loggio, the treasure chest of wines and hospitality. The seasons mark the work in the vineyards, endlessly surrounding the villa. Effort, work rules, decisions, responsibilities, cellar and hotel shop. Women. With courage, passion and stubbornness they tell the story of Sara, Beatrice and their muse: an Etruscan “warrior”, proud and beautiful, depicted in a large picture that stands in the lemon house transformed into an elegant tasting room.
Light, light everywhere: strong, penetrating, like the one in Sara’s eyes today, when she thinks all she and her husband have achieved and every day she loves capturing it in the lens of the camera, depending on the light. “Here are some sunsets ….” she sighs with a slight smile as she watches the sea of vineyards swaying, following the gentle slope of the hills where it produces Syrah (Lucius), authentic Chardonnay (Tanaquil), Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot (Curtun Toscana Super Tuscan), Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier (Losna). Etruscan names for wines that have a strong link with the territory and its history, ancient history. Etruscan history, that Sara, a German woman with a Dutch husband, discovered, searched for, studied, and loved in this place that today is home for her and her guests. A house founded around and on a wine project. In 1999 they first came to Cortona, they loved the charm of the villa and desired to start a new more real life here. In 2002 she and her husband bought the estate, a long process of restoration to return a building, dated 1676, to modern days. Every detail has been preserved and enhanced: the wrought iron staircase with butterflies who play above (seen in France and reproduced), rooms with large fireplaces, bedrooms furnished with simplicity, elegance and good taste in a perfect mix between the past (history, in fact) and the present. Comfort as in a spa, opening the door to the pleasure of relaxation.
A journey into the past as you climb the stone staircase, up to the fourth floor of large villa that receives, cares, cossets, caresses people seeking the meaning of life. Sara passes on to them a mission: to be “ambassadors of our wine”. A villa designed for “family and children”, says Sara, and proudly shows the result of so much work and so much passion, pausing in front of the large bookcase full of children’s books. One day, her husband and she left their professions and made a life choice, for them and for their children. “My husband has always been a big wine lover. What we loved was the country, these hills, the light and peace of these places, the culture of food”. In the shop-hotel-winery people come from all over the world: from Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Brazil, USA, UK, France and Turkey. Every part of the villa is full of details and careful attention, as in the swimming pool built near a garden of olive trees, and the garden buildings where guests can dine and relax. Statues, paintings, sculptures everywhere: past and present come together in very particular styles and forms of art. Etruscan as a code, as a DNA: in the hall of the villa, Sara has ordered a series of sculptures that reinterpret in a modern way the characters of the Etruscan civilization. “In our studies we found that some archaeologists have proved that the Etruscans, before all, took the tools of wine making from here to France”. As the Etruscans, Sara and her husband brought the vineyard to Il Loggio.
“When we bought the villa there were no vineyards, it was completely abandoned. We planted the cuttings and built our dream”. That Sara’s world is outside the world but tenaciously in the world, you understand when you slowly cross the long cypress avenue leading to the villa: country scents, intense, rich, enveloping. You arrive and you meet Beatrice, blue eyes and infectious smile. She is the woman of the vineyard and the cellar: agronomist specializing in the producing and marketing of wine products. She is the one who decides, with Sara, when, where and how wine is made. She would not change her job with any other and you feel this when she explains to you what “the beauty of hard work, tiring, but great because it allows you to transform into wine what the earth gives you”. Brave women, young team, very attached to the vineyard: fifteen people and two chefs (cooking classes organized for guests, courses matching wine and food, and wine tasting always accompanied by a dish prepared with care). There are Gaetana, the forewoman, and Roberta the chef, who in the huge kitchen bakes homemade bread, prepares dishes of local tradition, with quality raw materials that come from this land. “Terroir” is the cornerstone of our corporate philosophy; the other strongpoint is the direct relationship with guests who come to the villa, visit the wine cellar, take part in many activities organized especially for them: from the tours by foot, by bike or motorbike, to courses introducing them to the history and charm of falconry. “One of our young workers is a falconer and teaches the techniques of this ancient art”.
The direct relationship with customers is one of the strengths of the company that exports all over the world thanks to contacts – almost daily – that Sara and her husband personally take care of. “People who come to us have the chance to live a global experience that has many facets. Here they live a bond with the land, discover our products and when they leave, they pack our wine in their cases”. Personal and computerized highways are Sara’s way, she tweets, uses facebook, uses Instagram and interactive technologies to “preserve and strengthen that bond that naturally develops between us and our guests”. She defines the social networks as “essential tools for a company like ours, and in general for those who want to do business. Without the Internet and the social networks we would never have been able to make Il Loggio known worldwide”. But why Il Loggio? That is the name given to the stratification of the stony soil, which gives the wine the right level of minerals. Not only: the area surrounding the villa enjoys a special microclimate, very suitable for the Syrah but also perfect for the production of white wines. Research, study, work, testing: produces the Syrah Rosé, or Sauvignon Blanc-Viognier blend, or even the genuine Chardonnay and Vin Santo. A sea of vineyards in a sea of wine. Sara smiles, a little embarrassed when you ask a photo. She goes, with Beatrice, up the stairs leading to the entrance of the villa, just in front of the Four Seasons. Their season is today and in the future that they build day after day, between the rows that now rest, the light, the wind singing among the cypresses. Infinite passion.