This farm was a restored, thousand-year-old castle and winery. It was absolutely amazing. A pair of hilarious English siblings, Alexander and Charlotte, run everything from hotel operations, guests, and events to winemaking, olive oil production, and wine sales! Their mother, Sally, lives in the castle and they take care of her. She is a complete riot and everyone loves her. They have an Albanian couple, Uran and Evalina, that help out with the everyday cleaning and wine production. The castle is breathtaking and the interior decor is even more stunning. Charlotte really did an upstanding job on it all. They have 2 dogs: Mini, a beautiful, spotted Great Dane; and Otto, an adorable Jack Russell.
While we were there, we labeled the wine in a factory-type set up, pruned the entire vineyard, and cleaned out the oak and steel barrels. Learning about wine production and seeing all the work that goes into making a bottle of wine was a really cool experience.
We even got to participate in a wine tasting by cooking with an Italian michelin star chef, Roberto! Many interesting people came and went from the castle and we got to meet Sommeliers, a Bikini designer, a celebrity mansion manager, the lawyer for Bare Minerals, a renaissance art historian and so many more crazy successful people! It was really inspiring to meet such down-to-earth people who chase after their goals and aspire to their best selves.
Working in the vineyard was also very enjoyable. Pruning the branches from the wires was very long, hard work, but we just listened to podcasts while we were working and it made it very enjoyable!
If you want to try one of their signature Sangiovese wines, the Sacramonte, you can buy it here.
If you want to book a stay or event in their unbelievably well-priced castle, and for more pictures of the castle, click here.
If you want to check out Nikki De Marchi’s bikinis (they’re amazing, I lovvve mine), click here.
None of those ^^^ were sponsored (obviously haha)
Here’s a little more general info about this farm:
Location: Seggiano
Farm Name on WWOOF Website: Castello Di Potentino
Work: wine labeling, pruning the vineyard, cleaning barrels, helping at wine tasting
Hours: 9 am-1pm/lunch/2 pm-5pm (8 hours)
Length we stayed: 21 days
Pictures:
Wine labeling hyperlapsed
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