Our Diverse Future
When Giacomo Tachis died in 2016, and his wife only one year later, Ilaria’s life changed forever. She recalls,
“I felt a sense of pain in my soul and my heart because I felt that a part of me and my past life was going away with them and would never come back”.
“Me and the two of them, the three of us, our little family was gone. I was no longer A daughterr … it was a strange feeling. It left a trace of emptiness, of abandonment. But I was objectively glad because their sufferings ended and I was always present through their final years. I know they felt my closeness even though neither of them could speak in the last six months. We communicated with looks and caresses. I realized that the first chapter of the book of my life was over and that it was necessary to turn the page by learning from the teaching, but also from the mistakes of my parents. They too, like everyone else, had their faults and made some mistakes in life.”
My future, how do I see it?
“I believe I am deeply attached to this place, where I planted my roots from childhood. My task now is to leave a sign of my own earthly passage with my family, Raffaele and all the children.
We are building a small wine company. All this would not have been possible if my father had not left me a small material legacy, but above all if he had not left me a spiritual legacy. If he had not taught me to love and appreciate the countryside, to understand that a tree, as he said, never makes you feel alone, to perceive the secret messages that the colors, the perfumes, and the nuances of plants and flowers confide to us everyday.
But working in the countryside and on a farm is something else:
If my passion were not shared by Raffaele, my husband, we wouldn’t go very far. It is he who gets up at five in the summer to go to the fields to work the vineyards, he is the one who organizes the work of our collaborators and is attentive to every little sign that the vines give us especially between spring and summer. He is the one who unloads all the grape boxes and takes care of the first moves in the cellar during the first fermentation. Not to mention bureaucracy and administration, which occupy most of my day and Raffaele’s in this difficult Italy.
We imagine our future company, like a small country farm, simple but elegant, tied to the Tuscan tradition, but open to the news and wine lovers who from now on contact us from all over the world. Great attention will be given to the environment, ecology and biodiversity. We are trying to become autonomous also from an energy point of view, trying to make the most of our water and sunlight to produce energy. We are replanting all the vines to obtain high quality wines from top quality grapes. We work the land with sustainable management and a low environmental system.
The old Tinaia that we are going to renovate will be a simple place, but well equipped from a technical point of view. There will also be a room for tasting and organizing small cultural events, with a nice cozy garden and a sapling vineyard . I can’t say more details because it’s all in the making. But I’ll keep you updated. We hope to be able to inaugurate everything as soon as possible!”
Ilaria Tachis, June 2019