LOVE TUSCANY: tales of hope and resilience from Tenuta Torciano toughest year

Dear friends, here in Italy we have set March 18, 2021 as a symbolic date marking one year since the beginning of the pandemic in our country. In March 2020, the Lombard city of Bergamo, at the forefront of the Western world, showed its wounds to the world — everything has changed since then. In these spring days we all feel more confident, but the memory of the victims stays alive in our hearts.

Tenuta Torciano wants to remember, in its own way, all the victims of Italy and the whole world with a symbolic gesture full of meaning: we have adopted one of the oldest and most luxuriant olive trees in our olive grove, standing together with the other trees already adopted by generous "peasant friends from all over the world." We believe such an ancient, beautiful tree can become a symbol of strength, of a nature that fights adversity and is reborn. Our loved ones live again in the sap of a beautiful and ancient tree like the olive tree — nature reborn after every long, cold winter. This is the wish we want to convey to all humanity.

Tuscany's landscape

Rebirth and life, from the hills to the sea

Tuscany's landscape is shaped by olive trees of every shape and size, and it seems to raise a question: where does all this wonder come from? We must thank the ancient peoples — the Etruscans first, then the Romans — who cared for the tradition of growing olive trees for so long, a product that is now the "green gold" of our diet. Thanks to this heritage and to the work of farmers across the centuries, Tuscany today holds a treasure made of many kinds of oil, their variety shaped by the diversity of the region's soil. From Lucca to Lunigiana, from Arezzo to Florence and Siena, oil production is rich, and the goods that come from the trees in these areas are recognized as unique — like Chianti Classico oil, a PDO product that comes from the Chianti Classico's territory, crossing villages like Radda in Chianti, Castellina in Chianti, Poggibonsi and San Gimignano.

Adopt an olive tree

How the project began

Exactly in this territory, Pierluigi Giachi found a large hilly area full of ancient olive trees, abandoned because, even though these plants are strong and long-lived, staying healthy takes constant attention and care — demanding and expensive. Pierluigi and his family wanted to rescue these beautiful plants, discarded for years, so as not to lose an important productive and cultural heritage that has represented, and still represents, one of the most recognizable symbols of our beautiful Tuscany. He and his Tenuta Torciano, to mark the winery's 300th anniversary, created a big project to save the 7300 ancient olive trees planted in the area.

For me, this project started many years ago, when I found myself in a wide hilly area close to Florence, full of ancient olive trees, abandoned in the 1980's. You should know that traditional olive cultivation is often not economically profitable, given the quantities of oil produced and the numerous manual processes involved, so a lot of plants have been abandoned. I could not be indifferent to this huge waste, so I started a long and difficult campaign to recover the areas planted with olive trees. I want to restore life, strength and courage to these beautiful plants, with the aim of saving the variety of the Tuscan landscape.

The aim of this project, called "Adopt an olive tree," is tied not only to preserving Tuscany's landscape but also to an "ecological mission." One olive tree absorbs 730 kg of carbon dioxide in a year, the same amount of CO2 released by a plane flying from Rome to New York.

You can be part of this mission by adopting one or more of these 7300 olive trees: this act means so much for our planet and for your plant, which gets the chance to say "thank you" through the oil it produces every year. Adopting your olive tree for one, three or five years, you become a "virtual farmer" who takes care of a piece of Tuscany, an active participant in the olive harvest.

While your Tuscan olive tree waits for your care, you will receive pictures of the special moments of your plant, from cleaning to pruning, all the way to the birth and picking of the fruits and their journey to the oil mill. Adopting your olive tree, you won't just receive two bottles of your plant's special oil every year — you will also have the chance to embellish it with an engraved plaque, bearing the name you give your plant and your family name, recorded in a certificate of adoption valid for as long as you want to keep your olive tree with you.

An ancient symbol

The dove and the olive tree

There is an image that links the dove to the olive tree. The Bible tells that Noah sent a dove out of the ark three times, and it finally returned to him with an olive branch in its beak — a clear sign that reconciliation with God had occurred and the flood had ended. The dove becomes an instrument of reconciliation and peace for all humanity, and by osmosis, tradition attributes these same values of fidelity, purity and fertility to the olive tree. Its branches, long, wide and tough, are perfect for welcoming a dove tired from its flight, offering just the right amount of shade for this iconic animal of Easter and of spring in general — it is easy to see the whiteness of its coat among the angular leaves of an olive tree. The olive tree continues, through myths, legends and anecdotes, to animate the culture of humanity.

Share this TorcianoGreen project with us, and the whole planet will be proud of it.

Happy Easter — Pierluigi Giachi and Family