—words Laura Rysman
The Ferragamo name, long synonymous with Italian luxury, is now collecting associations with fine wine, hospitality and community revitalisation thanks to the iconic designer’s enterprising descendants. Here, The Luxury Report asks Salvatore Ferragamo what it means to bring his family’s golden touch to Tuscany’s hallowed vineyards.
Deep in the rolling hills of the upper Valdarno south of Florence, amid vineyards and horse paddocks, grain fields and woodlands, sits the country estate of the Ferragamo family: Il Borro. As one might expect of a property with ties to a global luxury goods empire, the villa, vineyard and guest accommodation promise a rather more manicured version of Tuscan lifestyle than the average farm around here. Flanking the cypress-lined driveway, champion racehorses-in-waiting graze contentedly in open pasture. On one side, neat rows of sangiovese vines cascade along straight-strung wires, continuing all the way to the forest’s edge.
Artisan jewellery is among the treasures to
be found in the meticulously restored village.
The medieval buildings surrounding the resort centre, however, are where the uniqueness of this place truly comes to life. Made up of a cluster of terracotta-roofed stone houses encircled by a deep ravine and perched atop an overgrown bluff, the village is connected to the surrounding land by an old stone bridge that curves gently upwards. To cross feels like entering an ancient, somewhat magical domain set apart from the ordinary world.
In the small piazza, a canopy of vines is heavy with kiwis. Potted red geraniums flank the little windows of the village houses. The gorges often seen in the background of da Vinci’s portraits lie just beyond the boundary, and every stone seems as if it had been cleaned and put back in place.
Since acquiring the 1100ha plot in the 1990s, the Ferragamo family has dedicated its love of beauty to reanimating this bygone village and its surrounds, creating a working farm that supplies Il Borro’s restaurant and produces acclaimed wines that are sold around the world.
Over a century ago, a teenage Salvatore Ferragamo left his home east of Naples for Los Angeles, where he crafted custom shoes for the emerging Hollywood elite. In doing so, he became a fashion star himself before returning to Italy to establish his eponymous shoe line in Florence in 1927. Unmatched in his innovations, Ferragamo developed the first wedge shoes and cage heels, and pioneered unconventional materials like cork and fish skin. The label would vastly expand under the leadership of his children with ready-to-wear and bags, becoming one of the most urbane brands in the luxury universe, deeply connected to refined Italian taste. So what is part of the family doing with their hands ‘in the dirt’, growing vegetables and grapes, far from any fashion capital?
As shoemaker to the stars, Ferragamo was inexorably linked to the Golden Age of Hollywood.
A LIVING LEGACY
The red grape harvest is in full swing when The Luxury Report meets Il Borro chief executive Salvatore Ferragamo the younger (grandson and namesake of the iconic shoemaker, who died in 1960). Now co-manager of the project initiated by his father Ferruccio (who serves as chairman) alongside his sister Vittoria, Salvatore carries forward a rich legacy.
“My grandfather always believed in quality, comfort, and design,” he explains. “At Il Borro, we’re doing something very far from fashion and my grandfather’s path but his values are part of a [culture] that we’re bringing to life here, with the same attention to quality, comfort and design in every aspect of hospitality and what we produce.”
FROM SOLID FOUNDATIONS
While the family has been at the helm for 30 years, the property’s history stretches back at least a thousand years, when a castle and small peasant homes were built on the spot. In the 1700s, the estate passed from the extinguished Dal Borro lineage to a succession of nobility: the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, then the Hohenlohe- Waldenburgs, and the Savoy-Aosta family which ruled Italy from 1861 to 1946. In his shoemaking heyday, Salvatore Ferragamo would holiday here. In 1993, his eldest son Ferruccio purchased the mini fiefdom with plans to convert the dilapidated settlement and circa-1854 villa (which had been badly damaged during World War II) into a self-sustaining resort infused with Ferragamo taste.
According to Salvatore the younger, the family saw great importance in reviving a property that “like so many estates in Tuscany, was left in a state of abandonment [after] the sharecropping system was abolished in the post-war period”. They began with the idea of an agriturismo (holiday farm) and a branded line of seasonal produce, but the project quickly grew in grandeur. “People expect more from the Ferragamo family,” says Salvatore.
To meet these expectations, the property’s vast woods and arable fields needed to be revitalised.
“We’re doing something very far from fashion and my grandfather’s path but his values are part of a [culture] that we’re bringing to life here”
Osteria Il Borro dining room
Salvatore outside Il Borro’s wine cellar
The 10-bedroom villa required extensive renovations, eventually becoming a private guesthouse and each of the village’s 38 medieval homes were painstakingly restored and transformed into individual guest suites, with furnishings reflecting the rustic history of the area. Several smaller villas dotting the boundary were also revamped and a farm building converted to exhibit the family’s private art collection, which is open to guests. More recently, a spa was installed in a former wine cellar, while small structures once used by hunters are being restored to offer a forest bathing experience for visitors seeking a technology detox.
Much like the Tuscan hamlets of old, here local artisans can be seen at work in small ateliers among the cobblestone laneways. “Artisans occupy such an exalted role for Tuscans, and for my family especially,” says Salvatore. “My grandfather was able to establish his business in Florence thanks to the talents of the city’s artisan shoemakers.” Il Borro’s village hosts the workshops of a jeweller, a painter, a restorer, a weaver and, of course, a shoemaker. “[He is] an excellent craftsman, we felt that having handmade shoes here was fundamental,” enthuses Salvatore.
Today, Il Borro’s hotel guests infuse the historic estate with energy, convening at the tavern housed within the former church or at one of the three farm-totable restaurants. Most ingredients are sourced from the estate’s certified organic farm, including the fruit and vegetables, flour, honey, cheese and eggs. Il Borro’s eponymous restaurant has even expanded internationally, with a location in Florence as well as franchises in Dubai and Crete.
Ever since Ferruccio—an early adopter of organic and regenerative farming practices—bought the property, sustainability has been at the core of its mission. Solar panels now generate three times the estate’s energy needs, ensuring that the operation of its resort, farm and vineyards is carbon neutral.
Vittoria joined the family farm in 2013 after studies abroad, and now oversees the fields cultivating typical Tuscan produce such as artichokes, salad greens, grains and legumes, as well as the olive groves for Il Borro’s delicately grassy oil. There are also 30 beehives and 200 Valdarnese and Livornese free-range hens to care for, plus a small herd of as the area’s famed Chianina cows, prized for their meat. For those keen to enjoy Ferragamo vegetables at home, there’s even a delivery service for residents of Florence and nearby towns.
A passionate equestrian, Vittoria also manages the estate’s horses— from breeding and riding to managing polo matches held at the property. While Ferruccio has passed the principal responsibilities of managing the estate to his children, he can often be seen driving a tractor around the fields—the Ferragamo who traded tailored blazers for barn jackets after a high-powered career in his father’s business.
Each family member maintains a residence on the property or nearby, which sees them naturally immersed in the local community, particularly with the area’s coalition of grape growers.
A long tunnel lined with
barriques connects the
tasting room to the old
subterranean cellar
dating back to the 1700s.
Image: Valeria Raniolo.
TRUE TO NATURE
Wine has been the pride of this corner of Italy since at least the Renaissance, when Cosimo III de’ Medici designated four distinct appellations to the sub-regions of the Chianti countryside. Il Borro belongs to the Val d’Arno di Sopra DOC appellation, with a consortium uniquely composed of organic winemakers— perhaps the only all-organic DOC consortium in Italy, as Salvatore is pushing to have officially accredited.
“Our wines are crafted with a deep respect for terroir.”
Certified organic in 2015, Il Borro’s 85 hectares of vines produce 250,000–350,000 bottles a year, an unusually high volume among organic producers. Salvatore oversees vineyard management, which incorporates biodynamic practices that eschew pesticides and chemical fertilisers in favour of natural preparations designed to enrich the soil. Typical methods include pruning during a waning moon (said to respect the vine’s sap), and using horses rather than tractors to avoid pollution that could affect the grapes. One way that production veers away from biodynamic prescriptions is in the use of sulphites, which help deliver the stability needed for export.
The underground cellar and winery is set in a 3000sqm cavern originally dug out in the medieval era and recently modernised to incorporate a monumentally long tunnel for housing more than 600 French oak barrels.
The winery’s signature is its IGT Toscana Rosso, a super-Tuscan blend of merlot, cabernet and syrah. The site’s gentle slopes and sandstone bedrock topped by a clay-heavy soil create the ideal growing conditions for sangiovese—Tuscany’s most important grape. The finest sangiovese bunches make it into Il Borro’s Petruna, which is aged in amphora as practised by the Etruscans two millennia ago—a method that proponents argue allows a wine to most authentically express its terroir. Salvatore affirms this: “Our wines are crafted with a deep respect for terroir.”
This reverence for terroir and tradition extends to effervescent offerings such as the Bolle di Borro, a sparkling rosé also crafted from sangiovese grapes and fermented in the labour-intensive Champagne method over 60 months to produce fine persistent bubbles, bright red fruit aromas and palate-cleansing minerality.
Il Borro’s resident tartufaio
guides guests through the
woods to unearth truffles.
Image: Marco Badiani.
Salvatore and Vittoria
with their father Ferruccio.
To cement their commitment to Tuscan winemaking, in July the family acquired the historic 21ha Pinino estate, located around 90 minutes away and regarded as one of Montalcino’s first vineyards. The expansion will add around 80,000 bottles per year to the portfolio, including wines from the prestigious DOCG Brunello di Montalcino. Should this venture lay the foundation for a Ferragamo-branded Brunello, it would mark a significant milestone in the family’s viticultural journey. Indeed, this fusion of centuries-old winemaking tradition with the Ferragamos’ innate understanding of luxury and discerning clientele may herald a new chapter in the world of fine wine.
As Salvatore reflects on Il Borro’s transformation, he radiates a sense of pride—not just for the winery’s success, but for forging a new kind of legacy for his family. “We’ve been here for three decades building up the wines and Il Borro […] has become a series of enterprises that have brought a measure of economic wellbeing to this part of Tuscany,” he says. “From a place that was abandoned to its decay not so long ago, I’m happy to say we’ve come very far indeed.”
A ride through the vines
is one of the popular ways
to take in the scenery.