Antonella Manulli owner and winemaker at La Maliosa enjoying beautiful biodiversity in her vineyards May 2025

“Isn’t it beautiful — Procanico?” asked Antonella Manuli, the owner of Fattoria La Maliosa, in the Maremma, Southern Tuscany. We’d been together out in her Vigna Madre vineyard on a. beautiful day in spring where her 60 year old Procanico grows. She wanted to show me how beautiful the grapes are at harvest so that evening we watched this video of Procanico (scroll down to view)  to see what makes this indigenous and rare Italian grape — a biotype of Trebbiano with longer pink bunches—so special to her.  

“What struck me was – it was so beautiful– it is such a beautiful grape the way it becomes pink and the bunch is so elegant. It’s got a strength–it’s not a fragile beauty. It’s totally in tune with the environment. It’s resistant and resilient. Nothing is really going to screw with Procanico. Except hail– no defense from hail,” Antonella said in reference to her 70% loss of her harvest in 2023. “But everything else is okay.” 

Spring 2025 was my third springtime visit as her guest, and I finally feel like I’m starting to understand not only the magic of Maremma, but also her regenerative agricultural practices in action— and the secrets of Procanico, which she helped resurrect.

To visit several of her vineyards including Procanico to see the progress of the vines, we traveled in her SUV  on ancient narrow country roads that Etruscans built over 3000 years ago by cutting through compacted volcanic ash.  Continue reading →