A cooking school and a cheese factory on the track for the Fattoria di Vignamaggio

The ultra-millionaire wine and hospitality project developed in Tuscany by the South African tycoon Koos Bekker, owner of the multimedia group Naspers active in 130 countries, together with his wife Karen Roos, is enriched by another piece. Ten years ago, the couple chose the vineyard-combed hills of Chianti Classico to build a luxury format in the countryside, which they had already declined in South Africa, 50 kilometres from Cape Town in the most beautiful part of Stellenbosch (where they created the Babylonstoren hotel), and which in 2019 they replicated in England, in the Somerset countryside (where they opened Newt Hotel). Meticulous restorations, use of local materials and craftsmen, care for the landscape, enhancement of typical productions, are the beacons that have lit the way.

In Tuscany, the Bekker couple have acquired, over time, 400 hectares of land - 65 of which are vineyards (yielding 250,000 bottles), 30 hectares of olive groves, 80 for grazing Cinta Senese pigs, and then truffle grounds, hazelnut groves, orchards, cereals, and Apennine sheep breeding - and various properties in the municipality of Greve in Chianti (Florence), grouped together under the Vignamaggio brand. The 'widespread' property includes a large 15th-century villa, Villa Rosa, which is being restored to be converted into a five-star hotel with 21 suites; three farmhouses intended for tourist rentals; the so-called Borgo, a restored historic residential complex (work took six years) used for weddings and events (it has 17 rooms, an original dormitory, a theatre, a chapel and a ballroom); and a guesthouse in the hamlet of Panzano with 21 rooms. The common element is the charm of the Tuscan countryside.

The latest part of the Vignamaggio project, which has just been inaugurated, is the 'Fattoria', a four-thousand-square-metre space that, like the eighteenth-century farms, aims to be an engine of ideas and 'experiences': it hosts a restaurant with a breathtaking view that uses produce from the 'home' vegetable garden; a space for wine and oil tastings; a sales point for the estate's agricultural products, as well as design objects and gastronomic specialities from the sister estates of South Africa and England; spaces for storing Cinta Senese hams; the orciaia, the balsameria, and the vinsantaia. Soon the farm will host a cooking school and a cheese factory.

The restoration, long and meticulous, was overseen by Emmanuelle Sebillet, who with Patrice Taravella manages the estate and who designed much of the furniture, made by local carpenters and blacksmiths: "We want to build a new idea of luxury," explain Vignamaggio, "that looks to niche productions, short supply chains, the protection of the territory and the recovery of uncultivated land, that exalts beauty and rediscovers authentic values. Those values that seem to 'enter' inside the Fattoria restaurant when the surrounding windows open up to the enchanted hillsides