Gorgona 2024 Marks 13 Years of Hope, Transformation and Second Chances

The Enduring Collaboration between Marchesi Frescobaldi and the Gorgona Penal Institute Continues to Transform Lives Through Winemaking on Italy's Island of Salvation 

GORGONA, Italy, June 13, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- As tradition holds, today Lamberto Frescobaldi, President of Marchesi Frescobaldi, uncorked the first bottle of Gorgona 2024 on the island itself – the latest vintage of a wine born in a truly extraordinary place: Gorgona, the last remaining correctional facility in Europe.

"A bottle travels the world and carries the story of everyone who worked to create it," says Lamberto Frescobaldi. "It's easy to fall in love with working in wine and in the vineyard – perhaps more so than in many other fields. And when wine is the product of a project like this one, born thirteen years ago, there is every reason to be proud. The strength of Gorgona lies in its inmates, who develop real winemaking skills on the island." Frescobaldi continues "A project like this has an immense impact – because when sentences are served and people return to society, they do so with tools that help them rebuild their lives."

Launched in 2012 through a partnership between Marchesi Frescobaldi and the Gorgona Penal Institute, the project offers inmates an opportunity for social redemption. On the island, they serve the final part of their sentence in close contact with nature, while acquiring professional skills in viticulture. During this period, they receive a regular salary, ensuring they have a financial foundation upon returning to life outside prison.

In a setting where time flows with the seasons and the hands that shape the land, inmates actively take part in wine production, working alongside Marchesi Frescobaldi's agronomists and oenologists. This experience offers not only tactical training but prepares them emotionally as well – a path to social reintegration guides the dignity of work and the healing grace of beauty.

Gorgona—described by Andrea Bocelli in 2014 as "Aphrodite's wildest and most radiant pearl"—is a natural amphitheater overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea. The vineyards, now stretched over two hectares, flourish in iron-rich soils caressed by the gentle sea breeze. Here Vermentino and Ansonica express all their beauty and complexity, giving life to a wine that captures the island's strength and poetry.

As is tradition, each vintage of Gorgona features a unique label; the 2024 edition showcases butterflies—symbols of balance and transformation—native to the Tuscan Archipelago. Designed in collaboration with Simonetta Doni of Studio Doni & Association - one of the category's leading design studios in the world - the label celebrates the island's biodiversity and the green manuring practice that nurtures its fertile soil. 

In the glass, Gorgona 2024 reveals a bright straw yellow hue. The bouquet is elegant and expressive, featuring Mediterranean blossoms, fruity notes of bergamot and tropical fruits, with herbal hints and a saline, iodine finish that captures the island's essence. On the palate, Gorgona 2024 is fresh, savory, persistent, and remarkably balanced, with a long finish. The 2024 growing season saw a mild winter with frequent autumn-to-spring rainfall. A significant temperature drops in September delayed the harvest, with Vermentino picked in mid-September and Ansonica in mid-October.

GORGONA – COSTA TOSCANA IGT

A one-of-a-kind wine. Just 9,000 bottles are produced each vintage – a symbol of winemaking excellence, environmental respect, and social responsibility. Gorgona is the story of an island, the people who work there, and the enduring belief that beauty and purpose can transform lives.

THE VISION

Frescobaldi per il sociale began in August 2012. Before being a wine, it was a long-term project launched with the support of the Gorgona prison administration. Its goal: to offer inmates hands-on, professional experience in viticulture.

THE PROJECT

The Gorgona project began in August 2012 as a partnership between Marchesi Frescobaldi and the Gorgona Penal Institute, the only prison-island in Europe. Here, inmates spend the final stretch of their sentences working in contact with nature, developing skills that support their return to the workforce and society.
Centered around a small vineyard nestled in a sea-facing amphitheater, the initiative helps inmates gain hands-on experience in viticulture under the supervision of Marchesi Frescobaldi's agronomists and oenologists. The original one-hectare vineyard has been restored by the inmates themselves, and another 1.3 hectares have since been planted by Marchesi Frescobaldi.
Gorgona Rosso was introduced with the 2015 vintage. It is made from Sangiovese and Vermentino Nero grown organically and aged in terracotta amphorae.

THE TIMELINE OF THE PROJECT

In May 2013, the first vintage of Gorgona (2012) was presented at the DAP headquarters in Rome, and in September of the same year, the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, also received magnum number "0" as a gift from Lamberto Frescobaldi himself. In June 2014, Marchesi Frescobaldi signed a 15-year collaboration agreement with the prison administration and hired two inmates working in the Gorgona vineyard, who are directly employed and salaried by the company.
In February 2015, the inmates, under the coordination of Marchesi Frescobaldi's winemakers, planted another hectare of Vermentino on the island, with the goal of involving more people in the vineyard work and producing an even higher-quality wine.

THE PARTNERS

Andrea Bocelli wrote and signed the label for the 2013 vintage.
"The Tuscan Archipelago is an earthly paradise, of which Gorgona is Aphrodite's wildest and most radiant pearl. Behind its apparent ruggedness lies the unspeakable seduction of scents and silences, and a nature that moves you with its strength, with its eternal youth… And all around, water and salt, reflecting the messages of the sky, tightening the ropes on the sails." (A. Bocelli - 2014)
Simonetta Doni of Studio Doni & Associati, one of the very few international design studios specialized in wine label design, contributes each year by donating the graphic design for Gorgona's label. Together with a highly specialized team with a distinct cultural and artistic sensibility, she interprets the unique qualities of the project and the island that brings it to life.
Giorgio Pinchiorri, patron of Enoteca Pinchiorri, one of the most renowned Italian restaurants in the world, participates in the project by choosing to contribute with his exclusive cuisine to the promotion of the food and wine heritage of the island of Gorgona.
Argotractors, a company of the Argo Group founded in 2007 with the goal of creating a global tractor manufacturing hub, donated a vineyard tractor for agricultural activities on the island.

MARCHESI FRESCOBALDI

The Frescobaldi family has been producing wine in Tuscany for over 700 years. Marchesi Frescobaldi is one of the leading wine producers in Italy, with products positioned in the high-end fine wine segment. The company, which combines tradition and innovation, believes in respecting the land and enhancing the value of the grapes from its own vineyards, and is known worldwide for its wines from its nine estates: Tenuta Castiglioni, Tenuta CastelGiocondo, Tenuta Perano, Castello Nipozzano, Castello Pomino, Tenuta Calimaia, Tenuta Ammiraglia, Rémole, and Gorgona.

INFO
Colangelo & Partners
Carlotta Ribolini, PR Consultant - Italy Representative
E: cribolini@colangelopr.com

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