Discover the Panizzi brand: here’s our interview.

Panizzi is a company that produces terroir wines and long aging wines following two important guidelines: identity and quality.
It was established in 1989 by Giovanni Panizzi who led it from the beginning among the most prestigious producers in the San Gimignano area. Panizzi is recognized as a leader for its modern style and iconic quality in the production of Vernaccia di San Gimignano.

Research and experimentation in the vineyard and in the winery are the cornerstones of the company’s production philosophy. The Panizzi winery, in fact, was the first winery to successfully enhance the aging of Vernaccia in purity in barriques, proposing a model based on highest quality production and continuous research through viticulture that is respectful and rigorous to the identity of the territory, allowing this grape variety to reveal its great peculiarities and characteristics.
The Panizzi winery is located just outside the walls of San Gimignano with a property of 60 hectares of vineyards. It annually produces 200,000 bottles entirely from its own vineyards.

Passion, significant investment of resources, and the improvement of the production model over the years have established new and high quality standards, with a priority focus on every vineyard and individual plot, enhancing their characteristics.

We love these realities, these producers of unique, certified, and award-winning delicacies: they are true treasures embedded in our Peninsula between seas and mountains and in the most remote paths of villages and countryside. We do not just engage with their products but want to discover the protagonists of this brand more closely. That’s why we sent some questions to those who manage communication with us.

Stay with us to learn about Panizzi: read the answers!
 

• Who are we talking to?
  I am Camelia Lazar, the sales manager of Panizzi.
   
• Is the company family-run? For how many generations and from what year exactly?
  A family-run company of Simone Niccolai, an entrepreneur originally from San Gimignano. Panizzi arises from the research undertaken by Giovanni Panizzi, who in the late 1980s, following a great intuition, made an important enological change in San Gimignano.
  Since 2005, Giovanni Panizzi, while remaining at the helm of the company, handed over ownership to the Niccolai family, where he found a shared vision, strategy, and determination to remain faithful to the original idea.
  Today, the company is led by Simone Niccolai, after the passing of Giovanni Panizzi in 2010, who continues his progressive approach.
   
• In what year was the company founded and who was the founder? What was the founder's training or what is the working and professional field from which he came if different from the current one?
  Originally from Bergamo and a chartered accountant by profession, Giovanni Panizzi spent vacations in Tuscany, then in 1979 he bought the Podere Santa Margherita, just outside the walls of San Gimignano, in the southwest area from the entrance at Porta San Giovanni. The farm also has a couple of hectares of vineyards, from which Gianni initially produced wine for himself and his friends.
   
• What is the true reason or triggering fact behind the birth of this company and when did it happen?
  Vernaccia di San Gimignano has a history of over 800 years and has a tradition closely linked to the territory dating back to the 1200s. Vernaccia is the first Italian DOC and from 1966 the reserve mention was immediately recognized. However, over the years, the image of the white Tuscan wine par excellence has lost its luster due to interpretations dictated by fleeting trends that were not very far-sighted. Giovanni Panizzi has been one of the main players and promoters of a shift towards quality, uniqueness of the grape variety, and territory from the beginning.
   
• What is your relationship with the land of origin and its typicity? And why do you want to share it with your products?
  San Gimignano remains the quintessential white wine enclave in the heart of Tuscany. 
  Vernaccia di San Gimignano has the pedigree to claim a leading role among the great wines of Tuscany, being strong not only in its history but also in its prospects: its extraordinary aging capacity.
   
• What was the first product you created?
  In 1989, the first real harvest arrived, marketed the following year, in collaboration with Salvatore Maule, then the company’s winemaker. The unmistakable label was already on the bottles from the first release: style and avant-garde then as now. From the 2000s onward, the first significant recognitions for Panizzi's products arrived, and critics began to pay attention once again to the denomination and the potential for the evolution of these whites over time.
   
• What is the product that you currently consider “flagship”?
  Panizzi is recognized as a leader for its modern style and iconic quality in the production of Vernaccia di San Gimignano. We are driven, with strong determination and without compromise, by two major guiding lines: identity and quality. Our mission is to create terroir wines but also those suitable for long aging.
   
• And what product has throughout the entire history of the company carried the pulsating heart, the philosophy, and the soul of the company itself?
  The Vernaccia Riserva Panizzi remains the quintessential Panizzi wine and requires very particular care in its production. The Riserva serves as our proving ground for demonstrating this wine's ability to stand the test of time. Each new vintage is introduced to the market in the fifth year following the harvest. The Vernaccia Riserva originates from the vision of a white wine of depth, longevity, and strong territorial identity on par with a great Tuscan red.
   
• Let’s talk about today: how much has the company grown since its inception? Can we have some numbers?
  Under the guidance of Simone Niccolai, who has increased the vineyard area, expanded the range of wines, and added agriturismo services, today Panizzi owns 60 ha of vineyards: 4 in the production area of San Gimignano; The Podere Santa Margherita, Larniano, Montagnana, and Lazzaretto, each with its distinctive land, a range of perspectives, and exposures. Additionally, there is an 8 ha vineyard - Pian delle Querce - in Seggiano, located at the foot of Mont Amiata. At the center of Panizzi’s production is Vernaccia di San Gimignano, to which equal attention is paid to Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Pinot Noir. We are testing Traminer, Semillon, and Sauvignon Blanc on Mont Amiata.
   
• At this moment: more tradition or more innovation?
  The Panizzi production model is based on highest quality production and continuous research through sustainable viticulture that respects the identity of the territory, which has led to innovative and exclusive results not only on Vernaccia di San Gimignano but also on red varieties like Sangiovese and Pinot Noir, giving rise to high-profile red wines that are strongly identified with the San Gimignano territory and united by the same philosophy of quality.
   
• What has been the most important evolution of the company to bring it to what it is today?
  The Vernaccia di San Gimignano Riserva '98 Panizzi was awarded by the Gambero Rosso Wine Guide with the assignment of 3 glasses: it is the first time that a Vernaccia di San Gimignano has received this coveted recognition. From this moment on, Panizzi began to pave the way for what is now Vernaccia di San Gimignano: a convincing, substantial, long-lived wine with a strong territorial identity.
   
• Talking about the future instead: what future awaits the company? Is there any change or new evolutionary process planned?
  Research and experimentation in the vineyard and in the cellar are the pillars of our production philosophy. There are definitely some very interesting areas in Italy for Pinot Noir production. We believe that San Gimignano is one of these realities and we are ready to prove it.
   
• Are you planning to create new products?
  Always. Innovation is in our DNA. Without revealing too much, we are preparing for the official presentation of the first vintage (2019) of the Selection Pinot Noir Panizzi, a project developed under the guidance of Alessandro Cellai, the consulting winemaker of Panizzi, together with the technical director of Panizzi, Walter Sovran.
   
• Having focused on Spaghetti & Mandolino, how important is online sales for you, what has your relationship with this sales channel been in the past and how do you see it in the future?
  We believe that online sales represent a very important opportunity. The ability to sell online on various successful platforms, like yours, allows us to reach a much wider audience than we normally have as producers of an important but small denomination like Vernaccia di San Gimignano.
   
• Value: what has it been, what is it today, and what will it be in the future for your company?
  Making wine teaches us to be patient and to have a long-term vision. We remain faithful to the original idea, our mission remains the same, to produce terroir wines with significant evolutionary capacities. Our ambition is to make our wines known in foreign markets and definitely focus on a new generation of wine lovers who are very sensitive to the fundamental principles of Panizzi: high quality production and continuous research through sustainable viticulture that respects the identity of the territory.

S&M