Fattoria La Vialla – Winner of IWSC 2023 Sweet/Fortified Wine Producer Trophy

We are delighted to award Fattoria La Vialla from Tuscany with our 2023 Sweet/Fortified Wine Producer Trophy, in partnership with Bottlebooks.

In 2023, this family-run, independent and almost self-sufficient farm celebrated its 45^th anniversary by scooping up a number of awards and trophies, including 21 medals at the recent IWSC Judging. Getting this far feels like a significant achievement, shares the team at La Vialla, given “the humble beginnings when most people thought the idea of running a wine estate in a comprehensive biodynamic spirit was crazy. We are very happy that our commitment has been rewarded”

Since 1978, La Vialla has been amongst the pioneers of organic movement in Tuscany. They have been farming according to biodynamic methods since the early 1990s and achieved Demeter certification for their first products in 2005.

Today Fattoria La Vialla is one of the few companies with a closed cycle production system. They make a wide variety of products: wine, olive oil, cheese, fruit and vegetables, pasta, biscuits and honey among others, following the strict Demeter standards and with complete traceability. Our experts appreciated how most stages of production and post-production are handled by the farm itself – from sowing to harvesting, from cultivation to processing and packaging, from direct contact with customers to shipping. This way they can make sure that everything is done according to the company's sustainable principles.

Furthermore, our judges were impressed with the scale of Fattoria La Vialla’s effort to preserve biodiversity and improve soil health. Installing sensors at vineyards in order to reduce the usage of water and collecting rain water for irrigation, carrying out extensive research to find a replacement for copper in viticulture, as well as researching ancient plants and even developing unique yeast strains from bee pollen – are just some of La Vialla’s initiatives.

“They are an outstanding winery across the board,” said our judges. “They put so much thought into winemaking and viticulture, and their approach is truly holistic. We felt that this was the most romantic application we had received, yet there are a lot of tangible things there.”

Part of La Vialla’s holistic approach has been sharing their knowledge and resources with the local producers. With the help of the Lo Franco Family Foundation, they have converted over 900 hectares of land to organic and biodynamic farming and supported more than 90 small farms in their transition to sustainable farming.

Congratulations to the team at Fattoria La Vialla!