From the atlas
Società Agricola Francesca s.a.s. di Loia Franca & C
At A Glance
Producer: Società Agricola Francesca s.a.s. di Loia Franca & C Type: Family estate Location: Empoli and San Miniato, Province of Florence, Tuscany Appellation: Chianti DOCG Key grapes: Sangiovese, Vermentino Farming: Organic Founded: 2004 Hectares under vine: 25
The Producer
Franca Loia and her husband Patrizio started the estate in 2004 on seven hectares of land immediately surrounding their home in Empoli, a town in the western Arno valley roughly halfway between Florence and the Tyrrhenian coast. They did not come to wine through inheritance or appellation prestige. They came to it through the ground they already occupied.
The estate takes its name from their daughter Francesca, born after the founding purchase. Twenty-five hectares now cover two communes: three in Empoli and twenty-two in San Miniato, the medieval hilltop town southeast along the Arno. The whole holding is farmed organically, a choice the family describes as the method most suited to combining tradition with what they are trying to build. The labelled wines are Chianti DOCG reds and a Vermentino white, and both have reached export markets, including listing at Systembolaget in Sweden.
This is a young estate by Tuscan standards. The vines were ten to fifteen years old at the time the estate began selling into retail, which means the oldest parcels are still well short of middle age. What Francesca has is not depth of tradition but clarity of place: a specific hillside address, a coherent farming method, and a range built from the varieties that suit the ground.
Place
Empoli sits where the Arno bends west before Pisa, at the edge of the broad valley floor. The vineyards are not on the valley floor itself but on the hills above it, at around 120 metres above sea level, looking out across the river plain. This is Chianti DOCG territory, the wider appellation that rings Chianti Classico without sharing its central Gallo Nero zone. Wines labelled Chianti DOCG here are Sangiovese-led reds that may incorporate other permitted varieties but sit outside the stricter production rules of the Classico heartland.
San Miniato, where most of the estate's twenty-two hectares sit, rises above the Arno on a ridge between the Elsa and Egola rivers. It is better known for white truffles than for wine, but its southeast-facing slopes share the Chianti DOCG qualification and the same general hillside orientation as the Empoli parcels. The spread across two communes gives the estate a wider range of exposures than a single-site operation, though without cellar detail confirmed it is not possible to say whether the two addresses are vinified separately.
Vermentino is unusual in this part of Tuscany. The variety is more typical of the Ligurian coast and Sardinia, and its presence here points to a deliberate choice to plant outside local convention.
Soil And Site
The soils are clay-silt, alkaline and deep, with stony inclusions and fossil fragments: small shells and marine material left behind when the sea retreated from this basin. The marine origin is visible in the soil profile and gives the ground a particular alkalinity that is uncommon in the more acidic volcanic and sandstone soils found elsewhere in Tuscany.
Alkaline, clay-heavy soils hold water well into dry summers and slow ripening relative to lighter, free-draining ground. They tend to produce wines with firm body and pronounced mineral character rather than the high-toned fruit of granite or schist. The estate attributes the mineral quality and solid body in its wines directly to these soil conditions.
The vineyards face predominantly southeast. At 120 metres, morning sun reaches them early and temperatures moderate by afternoon. The density is 5,000 vines per hectare, trained partly to spur-pruned cordon and partly to Guyot, depending on the parcel.
Story
In 2004 Franca and Patrizio bought the land around their home. The seven founding hectares were in Empoli, next to where they lived. From that starting point, they built outward, purchasing hillside vineyard parcels in Empoli and in San Miniato as they became available. The total holding grew to 25 hectares of vines plus six hectares of olive groves.
The decision to farm organically came early and was framed as a philosophical commitment rather than a marketing choice. The family describes it as the approach best suited to the combination of tradition and innovation they were pursuing, language that points to a founding conviction rather than a retrospective certification.
Naming the estate for a daughter rather than for a place, a classification, or a production method is a small but legible signal about where the founders located value. The estate is not selling Chianti history or appellation prestige. It is selling a family's commitment to a specific piece of Tuscan hillside.
Vineyards And Cellar
The 25 hectares are split between Empoli and San Miniato, all on hillside ground overlooking the Arno valley. Vine density at 5,000 plants per hectare is moderate by modern Tuscan standards, encouraging individual vine development without the extreme stress of high-density planting.
The two training systems reflect parcel-by-parcel decisions rather than a single regime. Spur-pruned cordon keeps bud counts controlled and works well on vigorous clay soils; Guyot allows more flexible selection of cane wood and tends to be preferred for Sangiovese in wetter or more vigorous sites. The combination across 25 hectares suggests site-adapted management rather than blanket uniformity.
Red varieties planted include Sangiovese, Merlot, Alicante (the local name for Grenache), Canaiolo, Montepulciano and Cabernet Sauvignon. White varieties are Vermentino, Trebbiano Toscano and Malvasia Lunga. The range of varieties across a relatively modest holding points to a mixed-variety farming approach rather than single-variety monoculture.
No verified cellar-method details are available. Fermentation vessels, oak use, ageing duration and lees treatment are not confirmed in any source.
Wines
Two wines are confirmed at retail. Lo Zio Chianti Riserva is a red wine produced under the Chianti DOCG appellation, composed of four grape varieties including Sangiovese as the primary. Chianti Riserva wines must spend a minimum of 24 months ageing before release under the DOCG rules, at least six of those in bottle. The Riserva designation indicates a longer-aged expression within the Chianti category. The specific four varieties used in Lo Zio are not confirmed beyond the DOCG's Sangiovese base requirement.
Poggio de Cansano Vermentino is 100 percent Vermentino, produced to organic certification. Vermentino in this part of Tuscany is a non-traditional choice. On clay-silt soils at moderate altitude, the variety typically produces white wines with fuller body than the leaner versions from coastal Sardinia, and the alkaline mineral base tends to give a slightly chalky grip rather than the saline edge of maritime sites.
Beyond these two bottles, the estate grows enough variety across 25 hectares to suggest a wider range, but no other labelled wines are confirmed.
In The Glass
Lo Zio Chianti Riserva is a Sangiovese-led red from clay-silt hillside ground. Sangiovese on alkaline clay tends toward firm acidity, moderate tannin, and red-fruit character with earthy depth rather than the high aromatics of granite or sandy soils. The Riserva category and the minimum ageing requirement mean the wine arrives with some bottle development already in place. Expect taut red cherry and dried herb on the nose, with tannin that is firm rather than aggressive, a lively acid line, and a savory finish. The four-grape blend with Canaiolo and Alicante alongside Sangiovese may soften the frame slightly and add mid-palate weight.
Poggio de Cansano Vermentino, grown on the same clay-silt base, is likely to show fuller body and lower aromatic intensity than coastal Vermentino. Where Sardinian examples often lead with citrus blossom and saline minerality, a clay-grown version tends toward stone fruit, a broader mid-palate, and a slightly chalky finish. The organic farming and moderate altitude should preserve freshness in the acidity without the wine becoming heavy.
A Bottle To Understand It
Start with Poggio de Cansano Vermentino. It is 100 percent Vermentino, organically grown, and it makes the clearest single argument for what the estate is doing: a family decision to plant an unusual white variety on clay-silt Tuscan hillsides and bottle it as a varietal wine. The grape is aromatic without being perfumed, tends toward stone fruit and herb on clay ground, and carries enough acidity on alkaline soils to stay lively without becoming sharp. A glass of it lands somewhere between the fuller coastal whites of Sardinia and the leaner whites of the Ligurian hills, shaped by its specific Arno valley address. It is also the bottle most widely confirmed in export retail, which makes it the easiest to find outside Italy.
Anecdote
In 2004, Franca and her husband Patrizio identified seven hectares of land in Empoli and bought them. What it had was proximity: the parcels sat immediately around the house where they already lived. They planted vines, registered the business, and began building outward from that founding plot. When their daughter Francesca arrived, she gave the estate its name. Franca describes her daughter on the estate's own website as a continuing source of growth and inspiration. The vines now run across 25 hectares in two communes, and every bottle still carries Francesca's name on the label.
Final Word
Società Agricola Francesca is an honest picture of what a committed family can build in twenty years on unfashionable Tuscan hillside ground: 25 organic hectares, two confirmed export wines, and a clear founding logic. The Vermentino white is the more distinctive bottle and the easier first choice. The Chianti Riserva situates the estate in its appellation. Neither wine carries the weight of a great classification, but both come from a place and a decision that are legible on every label.
Sources
- https://www.agricolafrancesca.com/chi-siamo/
- https://www.agricolafrancesca.com/
- https://www.thetuscantaste.it/prodotto/lo-zio-chianti-riserva
- https://www.systembolaget.se/produkt/vin/poggio-de-cansano-7140701/
- https://www.systembolaget.se/produkt/vin/lo-zio-7220701/