Issue link: https://www.balharbourdigital.com/i/111120
���We want to deliver one of the best wines of the region. I would like to be in the top three in quality.������Massimo Ferragamo S hoemaking scion Massimo Ferragamo may live in New York, but Tuscany will always be home���more specifically, a house among the vineyards in Val D���Orcia, deep in the countryside. ���I haven���t seen many places in the world with a view like this: It���s so silent and so beautiful,��� he swoons, slipping into Italian. ���When you see it you cannot resist the fascino, the allure, the charm.��� It���s the perfect weekend for Ferragamo, sitting there with his dog and a few friends while sipping a glass of the local red wine, Brunello di Montalcino. It doesn���t hurt, of course, that he owns every bit of land around him, a 4,500-acre compound that he bought and turned into one of Italy���s most luxurious hotels, the Castiglion del Bosco. Close to Siena, this estate forms part of the area known as the Val d���Orcia. It���s a largely untouched patch of rural Tuscany, a UNESCO World Heritage zone that resembles a Renaissance painting: lushly green, mist-capped hills studded with vineyards and an occasional tree, the swirling sky always a soft pastel blue. And the wine from those vineyards, Ferragamo���s beloved Brunello, is among Italy���s most prized. He bought this land almost a decade ago, when it comprised abandoned ruins from the 17th and 18th centuries, vestiges of a small village, 20 scattered farmhouses (also derelict) and even a 700-year-old chapel decorated with its very own fresco by Sienese Old Master Pietro Lorenzetti. He painstakingly renovated and upgraded every acre, which included planting new vines, installing an infinity pool and creating a full-sized private golf course. In a time-warpish gesture meant to evoke the area���s heyday, more than 200 lampposts, unsightly marks of the modern era, were grubbed out and the electrical wires painstakingly buried. That old village became the heart of the hotel and is known as Il Borgo, where there are now 23 suites, two restaurants and a spa; the landing pad welcomes helicopter transfers from Florence, a short 20-minute flight away. Nine of the scattered farmhouses have been turned into sumptuous private villas with kitchens���a basket full of produce from the property���s own organic garden welcomes all guests, whether they want to cook for themselves, hire a 176 BAL HARBOUR chef or shuttle back to Il Borgo for meals. And the 148-acre winery���the fifthlargest Brunello producer in the country���has become Ferragamo���s passion. ���We want to deliver, long term, one of the best wines of the region,��� he explains. ���I would like to be in the top three in quality.��� A wine-making newbie, he���s plunged into the business, hiring the renowned Nicol�� D���Afflitto to steer the operation, which also produces small batches of a superb chardonnay that, in fact, isn���t sold anywhere outside the hotel, so guests of Castiglion del Bosco are the only ones who ever get to taste it. But Ferragamo isn���t finished, as his next project is to renovate the remaining farmhouses on the estate. He also has decided to ditch Castiglion del Bosco���s original model���whereby jet setters paid membership dues as at a private club��� for phase two. ���I changed it for one very simple reason: In Italy, that formula, in the sense of fractional ownership, doesn���t work at a high end,��� he says. The tony 18-hole Tom Weiskopf-designed golf course is an exception and still runs as a club, though guests of the property are allowed limited access to the course. Now that it is operating as an ultra-exclusive hotel, Ferragamo plans to offer the last few of Castigilion del Bosco���s farmhouses for sale so buyers can customize their hideaway and then deed management back to the hotel. It���s a canny move, and one typical of the fashion family, which has owned and operated hotels since the mid 1990s, though never under the Ferragamo name. ���We don���t confuse the two things,��� he says. ���We are a large family, so we go by very precise rules we all respect.��� Nonetheless, a few glimpses of the Ferragamos��� leather-working heritage peek through in the form of the sumptuous shoe-polishing kit in every suite and the butter-soft hides wrapped around every television. Ferragamo can���t help but slip back into fashion vernacular as he raves about the hotel, clearly as much a passion project as a business. ���We want people to be in the real Tuscany and to give them a great experience,��� he says, pausing. ���It���s almost like putting someone in the front row at a show.��� BH Castiglion del Bosco, castigliondelbosco.com; open seasonally from March 28 through November 10, 2013.