From Film to Vineyard: The Legacy of Rocca delle Macìe
Italo Zingarelli greatest movie scripted and still running
Tammy de Weerd, Spoken Wines
This will hide itself!
From Film to Vineyard: The Legacy of Rocca delle Macìe
Italo Zingarelli greatest movie scripted and still running
Driving through Chianti is visual overload—rolling hills, green vineyards, tree stands, olive groves, and aged stone hamlets scattered across the landscape. I was hanging out the window, snapping hundreds of photos, and had just captured one of the most stunning shots when we realized we’d arrived at our destination: Rocca delle Macìe. We’ve been drinking—and loving—their wines for over a decade, so we were thrilled when they warmly invited us for an interview. The winery’s name itself reflects its deep sense of place. “Rocca delle Macìe” translates to “fortress of the stone heaps”. And standing there, it truly felt like a storybook setting pulled straight from a movie scene. Fitting, really.
A legacy in motion
In the early 1970s, Italo Zingarelli was a celebrated Italian film producer known for the popular 'Spaghetti Westerns'. But he had another dream playing in his mind: reviving the beautiful country side of Tuscany through wine. In 1973, against all odds and advice, he purchased a forgotten 14th-century estate just down the road from Castellina in Chianti. Actually, when first arriving at the site, his wife and their two friends, who joined him during a rainy Sunday afternoon, didn’t even leave the car and expecting him to return within minutes. He did return, with a deal to purchase the property!
Italo poured himself into reimagining the rundown hamlet and its small vineyard into a new kind of movie, one that would become his greatest script: a legacy for his family. His son Sergio Zingarelli joined him in the 1980s, and together they spent decades refining the wines and expanding the estate. Today, Sergio, his wife Daniela, and their children—Giulia and Andrea—carry on Italo’s legacy with focus and pride. Sergio crafts wines that express the terroir and highlight single-vineyard character. His approach is a balance between tradition and innovation; a style rooted in elegance and authenticity; and a commitment to quality over quantity. Andrea and Giulia, representing the third generation, are now part of the winery’s evolution: Giulia leads hospitality at the Fizzano estate, and Andrea oversees viticulture and production alongside his father. It’s not just a family-run business, it is the family. Their collective passion for the land has been handed down like a precious heirloom.
Rocca delle Macìe - “fortress of the stone heaps”
Heart of the Estate
The Zingarellis extend that family spirit to everyone on the estate. Our host, Georgeta, spoke of the Zingarelli family with genuine affection, as if describing her own relatives. The family is deeply connected with those who work alongside them, and their well-being is clearly a priority. That philosophy shines through in their hospitality and care for people. As visitors, we were welcomed like friends. Over lunch around Sergio and Daniela's family table, joined by their leadership team, we experienced the Zingarelli warmth: generous, passionate, and rooted in love. The kind of hospitality that makes you want to linger.
The Zingarelli family is deeply connected with those who work alongside them
How we discovered Rocca delle Macìe
We have been drinking their Chianti Classico Riserva for nearly a decade, and we love it! It’s easily in our top five. So visiting the estate in Castellina in Chianti felt like coming full circle. We learned that the Riserva’s complexity comes from blending fruit across the four estates the family owns, each with unique soils and exposures. The result is a wine that’s both earthy and vibrant—leather and spice alongside cherry, plum, even fig. Remarkable depth for a wine made in such volume of 300,000 bottles of Riserva each year out of more than a million in total.
But here, we explored their small-lot Gran Selezione wines and they stopped us in our tracks. Il Crocino from the sandy soils of Tenuta Fizzano was elegant, with long, fine tannins and ripe earthiness. The Sergio Zingarelli, from marl and loam-rich terraces just below the winery, was fuller, darker, silkier. We couldn’t choose, so we didn’t, we got both!
As we waved goodbye, one thought lingered: If Italo Zingarelli were here, he’d be proud. His film-turned-wine story lives on in these hills. A legacy passed down, a joy shared with wine lovers around the world, and a vibrant thread in the fabric of Chianti Classico in the now renowned sought after Tuscan hills.
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