A little bit more than three years ago, my life-long partner and I decided it was time to have a home, not just an apartment in London or in Paris, not just a country house in Wales or in Provence, but a real home where you don’t move in for a while, but where you establish yourself forever. It had to be a historic house and have a garden; it had to be large enough to host the art we collected those last 30 years and it had to be in Tuscany, because of all the places we visited all around the world, nothing came close enough to the beauty, the poetry and magic of the Tuscan countryside.

We gave ourselves three years to tour Tuscany and find an old fortress, a derelict monastery or a crumbling palazzo, but destiny is sometimes on your side and we got lucky on our first search trip; we found Villa Cosmiana, an old Pisan villa, abandoned since the thirties in its overgrowing park and surrounded by its neglected vineyards… it was love at first sight and, like all true love, it has not stopped growing since !  

At that time, we did not know that the house had been the property of leading characters of Tuscany’s history; we did not know that it had been designed by the most famous Florentine architect of the 19th century; we did not know that it was once nationally famous for the quality of its wines… we just knew that we were mad about the place and that it was in urgent need of love and care. That is what we gave it those last three years.  With the help of incredibly dedicated professionals, craftsmen and artists, with the support of the village authorities and of the entire community, we restored and refurbished buildings, replanted gardens and vineyards… and Villa Cosmiana is now close to the glamour of its golden age when  Amerigo Antinori, the duke of Brindisi, used to entertain here the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Leopold II, or when his daughter the Princess Maria Aldobrandini used to collect prices at national fairs for the excellence of the villa’s wines.  

Did we realise our initial project and find our home ?  We surely did, but we found more on the way… We found a mission, to safe-keep Villa Cosmiana for future generations, we found a passion, making wine at a high level of exigency, and more than anything, we found a community, the wonderful people of our dear little town Peccioli.

If you like wine, art and Tuscanny, have a look at our now released website…

Jean-Louis SCANDELLA