The property about which I write is the Sant’ Andrea Wine farm, in Sant’ Andrea in Percussina, just outside San Casciano, which, in 1428, was the property of Messer Bernardo di Boninsegna (Niccolò’s father). This, and some other properties, were inherited by Niccolò on his father’s death.


Gruppo Italiano Vini the owner of Machiavelli. The head office of the group is in Verona. Gruppo Italiano Vini was formed in 1986 and today is the leading Italian Wine Group – the Number One in all of Italy. Until September of 2006, they had an annual turnover of 70 Million bottles. Since then, however, together with Bolla, the turnover has risen to 85 Million bottles per annum.
Gruppo Italiano Vini owns 16 different estates throughout Italy and these comprise some 1,200 hectares of vineyards. The group deals only in wine, with a small amount of olive oil because of all the olive trees on their properties. They have carefully avoided diversifying into other fields and remain entirely focused on wine.

The following are the companies that they own and that they like to regard as part of a large family :
- Nino Negri - Conti Formentini (founded 1502)
- Lamberti - Folonari - Ca’ Bianca - Calissano
- Santi - Machiavelli - Conti Serristori - Melini
- Bigi - Fontana Candida - Terre degli Svevi
- Castello Monaci - Rapitalà - Bolla

With regard to Bolla, in Pedemonte in the region of Valpolicella, they acquired the winery, the cellars, the buildings, the stocks, the production and all of the vineyards. All the wine is made here. The name however still belongs to the previous owner, the American Company of Brown Forman, who distributes Bolla outside Italy whilst Gruppo Italiano Vini looks after distribution inside it.
They also own the exceptionally well known Importer/Distributor Company of Frederick Wildman in the USA as well as companies in both France and Belgium. At the same time they are part owners of companies both in Toronto and in Prague. GIV is indubitably a major player in the world of fine wine.

However, in this article, we are interested in the Tuscan Estates and particularly in Machiavelli. The other Tuscan Estate, Melini, is much bigger and more important. I have given a short chapter to it below. It makes very fine Chianti of the true and classical Sangiovese style. Most of the staff in Tuscany work on, and for, the two estates, and a lot of what we say about the culture of the vine and the wine-making techniques apply both to Machiavelli and to Melini, especially as they have the same winemaker, the chief coordinator for the totality of the GIV Estates, Christian Scrinzi. He is one of the few “universals”, as GIV have separate Viticultural and Wine-Making teams for most of their estates in the different regions of Italy.
There is also a Brand Name “Serristori” which, as we shall see, is the name of the family who married into the Machiavelli family and inherited the Machiavelli estates. All about this can be read below under “History of the Machiavelli family”.Emilio Pedron gave me the GIV philosophy in a nutshell. “We are a large company made up of small, but fine, and intensely individual estates.Each estate must retain its own individual character and personality. Its wines should reflect the persons working with it, its vines and its “terroirs”. We like to think of ourselves as one large family unit”.


Although our article is about Machiavelli, none the less since Melini belongs to Gruppo Italiano Vini, as does Machiavelli, we should not omit a few words about them. This is at the opposite end of the scale. It is huge, modern and state-of-the-art. It is the pride and joy of Christian Scrinzi. Superb, ancient oak vats, new Burgundian oak casks, modern stainless steel vats with every scientific gadget, and immense ancient storage and blending vats, have all been harmoniously blended into a vast, efficient and spotlessly clean entity.
Melini produces and sells no less than 10 million bottles per annum and the quality is first class.
It represents some 12% of the volume of Gruppo Italiano Vini’s annual sales. It is logical, pragmatic and sparkling clean ! In spite of all this modernity, it was founded back in 1705 and became famous for all time because it introduced the famous Chianti Fiasco (flask), known as the Fiasco Strapeso, in 1860. The Fiasco is the bulbous bottle wrapped in straw which we all love so much, but which is sadly disappearing from the shelves today. Strapeso means resistant to the pressure of the cork, mechanically inserted. Chianti could therefore reach the Italian and foreign markets more safely and surely.


ROLANDO CHIOSSI is the President of Gruppo Italiano Vini, the owners of the Machiavelli Estate.
EMILIO PEDRON is the Managing Director (CEO or Administratore Delegato) of Gruppo Italiano Vini.
TIZIANO MORI is head of the whole communications department of Gruppo Italiano Vini.
ROBERTA SPERONELLO is National Press, events and tastings of Gruppo Italiano Vini.
LUCIA MIGLIORINI is in charge of Public relations for Machiavelli and Melini (the Tuscan estates). She was my guide and mentor, my guardian angel, and it was she who worked tirelessly to gather all the information on the Machiavelli family and his family tree. She is a fount of knowledge and a queen-pin in the Tuscan organisation.
NUNZIO CAPURSO was the Managing Director of Melini and Machiavelli for 40 years. He now looks after some vineyards in the south and is the wine maker of the Aglianico wine, “Re Manfredi”, for Terre degli Svevi. He is President of the Chianti Consorzio and Vice-President of that of Chianti Classico.
CHRISTIAN SCRINZI is a kingpin of Gruppo Italiano Vini and, as already mentioned, is the chief coordinator who oversees each and every one of their many properties. At present he is spending a large part of his time at MELINI, where huge investments have been made. It was he who gave me all the technical information in this article as well as his philosophy and his passion.
He was born in Rovereto, in 1968, and is today married to Antonella. He has a young daughter, Viola, aged five. He studied Oenology in San Michele.His mother and father made wine at home and Christian adored spending time in the vineyards from as young as he can remember.
ANDREA LONARDI is another key figure. He is the chief agronomist, overseeing all the Gruppo Italiano Vini vineyards and another one of the few “universals”.
MARCO GALEAZZO is the new Director of both Melini and Machiavelli.
UGO PAGANO is a key oenologist with GIV.
DINO CAVACIOCCHI is the vineyard manager of Machiavelli.


The roots of the Machiavelli family can be traced back, with various different but similar spellings, to the early 12th century. It almost certainly came from the Val de Pesa and possibly from a small place of that name or similar. There are traces of a hamlet by the name of Malclavello. There are also pointers to a village by the name of Giogoli, near Sant’ Andrea. Neither of these places is in existence or on the map today.
In those days families often took their names from the places where they lived or vice versa. Certainly they were established in Sant’ Andrea di Percussino very early on.It was at the end of the 12th century that the family moved to Florence.

This was a period of mass migration from the country to nearby Florence. At that time it was the only way to become emancipated – to cease to be more or less a slave on the country estate of a noble family and become part of an independent society. A document, still in existence today, records an “Ianni Malkiavelli” already in Florence, in 1199. This is the first time that we see the name in print in Florentine archives.
Before they moved they would appear to have been vassals of the noble house of Carondini di Giogoli.This is another good reason to think that they came from around there and is supported by the wonderful story about a certain Giovanni Angelini de’ Machiavelli (note the ‘de’ for relative nobility). He was the treasurer of the Florence Cathedral, showing clearly that the family had gone into finance (and merchandising).

The monks accused him, on 10th January 1298, of pederasty and of violating several of their order. Also of having an intimate relationship with the Abbess of the Carmelite Sisters of the Convent of Paradise and of having a son by the servant Sibilia, in addition to playing games of chance (strictly forbidden) and of consorting with undesirables and low-life ruffians. The case lasted two years, but he emerged victorious, probably because he was in the confidence of Bonifaccio the Eighth.
In their complaint they stated that he was not a free person but “adscripticius” to the Carondini de Giogoli.This in spite of the fact that he was a jurist and a businessman.What is clear is that to become a merchant and/or banker at that time opened the way to public office and therefore to acquiring some measure of wealth. Acquiring some wealth permitted study, as books were both rare and expensive.

Study, in turn, paved the way to liberal activities – jurist, financier, etc. This is the path that the Machiavelli family took, but like so many other families following the same path, they held on tenaciously to the lands and possessions of their country roots. They even continued to increase them. Land provided the most precious, and all too rare, necessity of the time – food !
Land also brought in some revenue.In 1390, the noble family of Da Montespertoli died out with Ciango d’Agnolo, who left the castle of Montespertoli, in indivision, to Lorenzo and Boninsegna Machiavelli, the sons of Filippo Machiavelli, great-great grandfather of Niccolò.I mention this, not because it brought them any fame or fortune, but because, in the 20th century, the castle belonged to the Sitwell family, who were famous English writers and authors. I, personally, was asked by them to evaluate the property, in 1969. Documents show it as belonging to Guido Machiavelli, in 1433.

During their history, the Machiavelli family provided Florence with no fewer than 13 “Gonfalioneri” and 50 “Priori”.Traditionally Boninsegna Machiavelli is regarded as the root of the authenticated family tree and it is a name that they kept for many generations. This first Boninsegna had a son, who carried the same name, who we think died in 1320. His son was Agnolo and he, in turn, had a son, Giovanni, who was born in 1396. Dates are rather obscure and uncertain during this period.
By the end of the 1200s the family had done well. They had become members of the “case notabile” of the “buoni popolani” in the Sestiere d’Oltrarno sector of Florence. They had their Florence house. Records also show that a brother of Giovanni Angelini de’ Machiavelli had a pawn-broking business in France and was doing business as far as Flanders. Also a Banguel Malclavel was trading in Quimper, in 1296.

By 1400, there were 15 known branches of the family, who could be described basically as “rentiers”, deriving their substance from their land in the country and their property and trade in Florence. In 1427, there was a Totto who lived in England and who is shown to have had a debt of 600 Florins (a lot of money then). In 1433, documents make it quite clear that they were absolutely a family of Florentine merchants, with land and property in the country.In 1421, in the village of Sant’ Andrea, there were 111 inhabitants, grouped in 18 families. No less than 11 of the “Podere” belonged to branches of the Machiavelli family. The famous Albergaccio (about which more below), had been built in the 13th century and was still very much lived in by them.

By the time that Niccolò’s father, Bernardo, born 1425, came on the scene, they had a house “Il Palagetto”, in Florence, close to the church of Santa Felicia on the Santa Felicia square. During his young days Niccolò and his family moved backwards and forwards between here and Sant’ Andrea. By good fortune we are still in possession of a meticulous and detailed “book of records” kept by Bernardo, between 30th September 1474 and 18th May 1487. This covers Niccolò’s youth from the age of 5 to 18.
As a point of interest, shortly before Niccolò was born, a certain Girolamo Machiavelli denounced the “tyranny of the few”. For this he was imprisoned and finally tortured to death ! Going back to the family tree, we have seen that Giovanni was born, in 1396.

Adhering to the habit of keeping the same family names, Giovanni had a son, Boninsegna. So far we have not bothered ourselves with brothers and sisters that did not lead to our Niccolò. Here however we will mention that Boninsegna had four children – Guido, Niccolò, Giovanni and Totto. Niccolò and his wife had a son, Bernardo, and this was our Niccolò’s father. In 1447, when he was 22, he studied law and became a “giureconsulto”, although he seems to have practiced only rarely.
He was treasurer of “La Marca”. His full name was Messer Bernardo di Niccolò Machiavelli (Messer shows that he had qualified). By then the family seems to have lost its riches and Bernardo, although a lawyer, was a poor man. Many books describe him as “impoverished” and it would seem that, although he was a man of letters, he was not a brilliant lawyer.

The fact that he owned other parcels of land did not make him much richer at that time, as agricultural land in the country was probably worth very little. Its main use was to provide food. He had to borrow money to obtain books for his son’s studies. He married a lady of similar social status – Bartolomea de Stefano Nelli – who was a lady of letters and a poetess.
They had four children : Primavera (1464), Margherita (1467), our Niccolò (1469) and finally Totto (probably short for Lodovico), in 1475. Totto was a priest, but died of the Black Death, in 1522, having previously renounced his inheritance. After her husband’s death, Niccolò’s mother remarried a certain Francesco who was also a man of jurisprudence and a treasurer.

Niccolò married a lady of exalted social status, at least the equal if not greater than that of his own – Marietta Corsini (see the FIVE WINES on CORSINI). Marrying partners of equal status was practically “de rigueur” at that time. She gave him at least five children – Bernardo (1503), Lodovico (1504-1536), Guido (1511), Piero (1514-1564) and a daughter Bartolomea. Bernardo, Niccolò’s eldest child, had two children. One of them was Alessandro Machiavelli. Alessandro married and had a daughter, Ippolita, who married Pierfrancesco de’ Ricci.

The end therefore of this branch, Niccolò’s branch, arrived when their daughter Cassandra de’ Ricci (daughter of Ippolita, née Machiavelli) married Count Antonio Serristori, in 1639.Other branches of the family had interesting histories of their own, which do not directly concern us here and we do not have the space to go into details.
In 1608, Simona di Lorenzo di Ristoro Machiavelli bought Poggio Torselli from the Macalli family and, in 1658, it passed by heredity to the Corsini and Strozzi families and, in 1664, to Corsini only (two other great and noble families).We also know that, in 1497, a Baccia Machiavelli married a Giovanni de’ Ricci and that later a Maddalena Machiavelli married a Filippo Corsini (1578-1638). Also a Francesca Machiavelli married a Francesco Strozzi (another great and noble family).

A wonderful old parchment document shows the family tree and takes other branches of the Machiavelli family as far as Sebastiano Machiavelli, 1731, which is perhaps not long before the parchment was so beautifully illuminated. Another document shows the last member of the family carrying the name, as Francesco Maria Machiavelli, who died in 1727. In the 17th century all the family buildings were absorbed into the vast “Fattoria” of the Serristori family, who made them into their administration centre.These numerous marriages, throughout the centuries, with the great and noble families, show quite clearly the social status of the Machiavelli family itself.


Luckily the history of the property of Sant’ Andrea does not stop with the marriage of Ippolita.Indeed it continues quite gloriously. The Serristoris were noble and rich. They were members of the SIGNORIA. Count Antonio Serristori was a senator of Florence. They enlarged the small, three-roomed house and the property. They prospered and they proliferated.
They passed the property down from one generation to the next for 350 years. This, in itself, is quite an achievement. Indeed, they continued to own the property until, in 1976, the Countess Sofia Serristori sold it to Gruppo Italiano Vini, the present owners. Even then she retained the usufruct of the house, although not of the Albergaccio, and lived in it until her death in the early 1980s.

When Gruppo Italiano Vini finally obtained the freehold of the house, they also inherited everything in it, furniture, pictures and Machiavelli memorabilia. Today the house is a museum that can be visited upon request and is a joy and a delight.
The Albergaccio is an Inn, recently restored and open to the public for meals on certain days. It is well worth the visit for its charm, its historical value and its magnificent views. Gruppo Italiano Vini is to be congratulated for the care that they have taken to preserve a piece of the great and grand history of the Florentine Republic.


Niccolò Machiavelli, 3rd May 1469 – 21st June 1527. Political Philosopher, Musician, Poet, Romantic Comedic Playwright, Key Figure of the Italian Renaissance.Niccolò Machiavelli was born on 3rd May 1469, and grew up in the glory days of Lorenzo de’ Medici, Lorenzo the Magnificent.As we have seen above, his father was an impoverished lawyer, a member of the old Florentine nobility and of a long established Florentine family that had been rich and distinguished well over a century beforehand, during Florence’s great banking era.
This was also prior to the terrible plague of the Black Death.Niccolò’s mother, whose family originated from Fuceccio, appears to have had a considerable formative influence and to have loved him dearly. She wrote poetry and was exceedingly well-read. The family was too poor to give him much of a Humanist education, the education of the rich, but they tried and it was his mother who taught him. Mainly he read Latin and Medieval Aristotelianism that still pervaded 15th Century European education, but not ancient Greek. He was interested in politics from a very early age. Later, his friends would introduce him to Roman Poets, Rhetoricians and Historians, who inspired the Humanists. When he was 25 he was a student of Marcello Virgilio.

Thus he absorbed and became consumed with his lasting passion - that of the rebirth of an Italy, which had once been the centre of a great empire that had ruled the known world. He early ceased to believe in God, but paid the lip service that was necessary at the time.
He married Marietta Corsini (see above). It was decidedly a love match, even if Niccolò was prone to peccadilloes, particularly with a lady who lived at the Ponte Alle Grazie, among a motley selection of others !
He visited her many times and she is said, in a wonderfully explicit old document, to have awaited him with “ever open legs” ! Marietta gave him at least 5 children : Bernardo, Lodovico, Piero, Guido and Bartolomea, of whom he seems to have been genuinely fond.
Letters still exist that he wrote to Guido.

A wonderful letter also exists, in which Marietta rails about his long absences and his infidelity and describes him as a “philanderer who doesn’t care for her any more” ! It is quite clearly the letter of a young and affectionate lady in love who is distressed and disturbed by her husband’s absences and asides.Also a lady with a decided character of her own, who doesn’t believe a word of his lame excuses and explanations !
He is said to have been rather unprepossessing and curious. Slender, with beady black eyes, black hair, a small head, an aquiline nose, tightly closed mouth and an air of cold and inscrutable concentration. Somehow women found him attractive.The age in which he grew up was one of political turbulence. He was just nine at the time of the Pazzi conspiracy and, by age 22, had seen the rise of Savonarola and the banishment of “Piero the Unfortunate” (a member of the great Medici family).

We do not have time in this article to follow his career. However, a very brief look at his lifeline shows :
1469 Third May, Niccolò Machiavelli was born.
1476 Started to study Latin.
1480 Started to study Arithmetic.
1492 Lorenzo the Magnificent dies.
1494 The Medicis are driven out of Florence and the Republic restored.
1496 Death of his mother.
1498 Writes a letter to Savonarola. Later that year Savonarola is put to death and one month later Machiavelli is elected Secretary of the Second Chancery. Then made Secretary of “The Ten”.
1499 First diplomatic mission. Writes a Discourse.
1500 Father dies. Leaves him the Sant’ Andrea property, which includes the house, the vineyards and the Albergaccio. Machiavelli’s first mission to France.
1501 Married Marietta Corsini, in August, and later had four boys, Bernardo, Lodovico, Piero and Guido as well as one daughter Bartolomea. Went on many missions and had a number of not very serious amorous encounters, which he recounts in letters to his friends with considerable humour.
1502 More missions.
1503 More missions. Is invited to Rome for the election of Pope Julius II.
1504 Second diplomatic mission to France.
1508 Machiavelli put in charge of operations against Pisa.
1510 Third mission to France.
1511 Fourth and last mission to France.
1512 The Medicis regain Florence.Soderini resigns and flees on September 1st.Six weeks later Machiavelli is discharged, punished, stripped of his office, fined 1000 florins and banished from Florence to his farm at Sant’ Andrea. He was 43 years old and his life was in ruins.Worse was to come.
1513 He was thought to be part of an anti-Medici conspiracy. He was flung into jail and tortured. Four drops on the rack ! Finally it was accepted that he was innocent and, after two more months in jail, he was allowed to return to his vineyard. Shortly thereafter he writes “THE PRINCE” and works on “THE DISCOURSES”.
1519 Leo X, the Pope, applies to Machiavelli for advice. His advice is ignored.
1520 He writes “THE ART OF WAR” and other works. He begins his “HISTORY OF FLORENCE”.
1524 His play, “MANDRAGOLA,” is printed.
1526 He is employed by Clement VII to inspect the fortifications of Florence. A sop to Cerberus !

1527 Machiavelli dies, June 20th, ironically just weeks after the Medici were once again driven out of Florence.From 1513 he lived out the rest of his miserable life, at Sant’ Andrea, in despair and relative poverty. He sent frequent, abject and begging letters to the Medici and was from time to time asked for advice, which he gave, but which was always ignored. His despair turned to bitterness and, in 1513, as shown above, he distilled it all into one of the greatest philosophical works ever written – “THE PRINCE”. This he uselessly dedicated to the Medici.
He wrote many other works, the most famous being those already mentioned. He died a bitterly disappointed man, in 1527.Perhaps one of the most illuminating and poignant letters ever written was one that he wrote to a friend about his life on his farm and vineyard in Sant’ Andrea. This was written on December 10th 1513, shortly after he had been tortured and released from prison. He talks about his vines, his daily routine, his lunch with his family, his poverty, his conversations with the locals in his inn, etc.“Thus, wallowing in all this lousiness, I keep the mould from my brains, and vent my rage against the malice of my fate, glad to be downtrodden this way, in the hopes of fate becoming ashamed of it”. Poor Machiavelli !


Thousands of books, studies and learned works have been written about Niccolò and his“PRINCE”. If we try and distil his “Machiavellian” philosophy into a few words we find.“If anything was possible then anything was permitted”.

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