The Agronomist & the Oenologist
Marco Valentini and Filippo Artini are the high-school friends behind Malerba — an agronomist and an oenologist who since 2018 have been conducting what they call a "zingarata enologica," a gypsy wander through wine without a destination, where the journey and the friendship matter more than the arrival. On 20 hectares in Valdarno — split between Marco's rocky, poor Chianti-side estate at Tenuta Bracciolini and Filippo's deep-clay Cavriglia vineyard at Località Casino — they farm 2.5 hectares of old native vines with almost no intervention: very little copper and sulfur, abundant weeds, bushes and trees growing freely among the rows, and vines tied with vinco branches rather than wire. In the cellar they are "the most Taliban possible" — the only ingredient is grapes, nothing else. No added sulfites, no biotechnology, no oenological aids, no additives, no protocols, no machinery, no heat, no cold, no electricity. Their wines are not products; they are substances — the result of a complete transformation of the fruit through months of skin contact, where the corruptible matter is stripped away and only the deepest, most essential memory of the grape remains. The name Malerba honors the weeds — allies, not enemies — and every detail is ecosustainable: ultra-light bottles, recycled paper labels, wire cages. This is not natural wine as a category; it is wine as alchemy.
Marco & Filippo & the Zingarata Enologica
The story of Malerba is a story of friendship — the kind that begins in a high school classroom in Montevarchi and ends, or rather never ends, in two vineyards on opposite sides of the Valdarno. Marco Valentini and Filippo Artini have been friends since the liceo. They finished school together, and together — with all the boys of their class — enrolled in computer science, which they define as their "anno sabbatico." What better than a year spent doing nothing while claiming to be students of a faculty that interested no one? A strategy of true zingarata — the Italian concept of a wander without a destination. And after?
Marco, to have everything clearer, went to become a plumber. Five years as an apprentice. Then he studied agriculture. His father had bought a farm with 12 hectares while still teaching, and Marco — after the plumbing, after the agronomy — began to work the half-hectare of vines that his grandfather had cultivated. He learned to make wine from his grandfather, who forbade adding anything to the wine. If Marco added, he had to do it in secret. The agronomic studies gave him a more critical eye on what he saw in the various cellars where he worked. Meanwhile, Filippo chose oenology because it was fashionable and he had no clear vision of the future. He worked abroad and in Italy, especially in Franciacorta, making sparkling wine. Until he decided he wanted to return to Tuscany and do something of his own.
They began to meet more seriously around 2017. Marco had been experimenting with lighter and lighter vinifications, trying to explain to Filippo theories about things that were happening in his cellar — leaving barrels without sulfiting and finding the wine at zero free sulfur without defects. Marco's vineyard had Sangiovese, but also a lot of white grapes, and Aleatico from which he made passito. His commitment to viticulture had always been a weekend pastime, a side project to his main work. From Franciacorta, Filippo brought the knowledge of sparkling wine methods, and together they began to experiment. The first structured conversations happened around 2017. In 2018, Malerba saw its first "vagiti" — its first cries — producing wine in Marco's vineyard and cellar. Filippo's vineyard and cellar joined in 2020, when Malerba was officially born. Twenty hectares in total, with 2.5 under vine. They vinified in two cellars until everything was consolidated into Filippo's cellar in Cavriglia, with Marco's becoming a historical storage cellar.
The two estates are completely different. Marco's Tenuta Bracciolini, in frazione Cicogna, Terranuova Bracciolini, is on the Chianti side — rocky, poor, steep, sandy soils. Filippo's Cavriglia, Località Casino, is on the opposite side of the A1 motorway — deep clay, the balze (clay cliffs) of Valdarno, naked hills of pure argilla. They are about 20 kilometres apart, with Montevarchi in the middle. Marco lives on one side, Filippo on the other. They are different but inseparable, like the two halves of a single vision. As Filippo puts it: "We are friends from high school. We found each other again, always in contact. We had the need to realise ourselves in something of our own, with the idea of making unrepeatable wines." And as Marco adds: "Nature must have its say in the product we make. It is she who guides us, and that is why in production our intervention is reduced to the minimum."
"This is being gypsies: a departure without a destination and without purposes, an evasion without programs. It can last a day, two, or a week. Once, I remember, it lasted twenty days."
— Mario Monicelli, Amici Miei
Valdarno, Cavriglia & Terranuova & the Two Faces of Clay
Valdarno is the valley of the Arno River between Arezzo and Florence — a landscape of clay hills, badlands (calanchi), and medieval villages that has been producing wine since the Etruscans. The Malerba estate is split between two distinct areas of this valley: Cavriglia (Filippo's side) and Terranuova Bracciolini (Marco's side), at approximately 350 metres above sea level. The two parcels are only 20 kilometres apart but represent two completely different geological and viticultural realities — a duality that is the foundation of Malerba's complexity.
Marco's Tenuta Bracciolini, in frazione Cicogna, is on the Chianti side of the A1 motorway — the western slope of the Valdarno. Here the soils are rocky, poor, steep, and sandy — classic Chianti terrain where the vines struggle, roots dig deep into fissures, and the resulting wines are tense, mineral, and angular. The Sangiovese here is not the soft, round version of the plains; it is the wild, tannic, ferrous expression of the hills. The old vines — some dating back decades — are trained in a traditional manner, tied with vinco branches rather than wire, a choice that honors the pre-industrial viticulture of the region and avoids the thermal stress and conduction that metal can impose on the vine.
Filippo's Cavriglia, Località Casino, is on the opposite side of the motorway — the eastern slope of the Valdarno. Here the soils are deep clay — the balze, or clay cliffs, that define the Valdarno landscape. The clay is profound, water-retentive, and cool, producing grapes of natural acidity, thick skins, and a dense, almost architectural structure. The hills are naked, stripped of topsoil, revealing the raw geological power of the Arno basin. This is not gentle Tuscany; it is the rugged, almost lunar Tuscany of the calanchi, where erosion has carved the clay into dramatic formations that seem to belong to another planet. The combination of the two terroirs — rocky Chianti steepness and deep Valdarno clay — gives Malerba a range of expression that no single vineyard could achieve.
The farming is organic-certified by Suolo & Salute — but Marco and Filippo do not like categories. They behave in the vineyard "as if they do not exist" — intervening as little as possible, observing the moon phases for racking (as Marco's grandfather taught him), but refusing the rigid protocols of biodynamic associations. The vineyard is deliberately kept messy — full of weeds, bushes, shrubs, and even trees growing among the vines. The name Malerba itself honors the weeds: allies, not enemies, essential to the ecosystem's integrity. They use very little copper and sulfur, and the goal is to create a self-regulating environment that can react to external stimuli without human interference. The result is a vineyard that looks wild, almost abandoned, but is in fact a carefully balanced ecosystem — a habitat where the vine is one organism among many, not a monoculture dictator.
Malerba Società Agricola is located in two distinct areas of Valdarno, between Arezzo and Florence, Tuscany, Italy. The estate comprises 20 hectares total, with 2.5 hectares under vine at 350m elevation. Founded in 2018 by Marco Valentini (agronomist) and Filippo Artini (oenologist). Two estates: Tenuta Bracciolini, frazione Cicogna, Terranuova Bracciolini (Chianti side — rocky, poor, steep, sandy soils) and Cavriglia, Località Casino (Valdarno side — deep clay balze). Organic-certified by Suolo & Salute. Old native vines tied with vinco branches, not wire. The vineyard is deliberately messy — weeds, bushes, trees, and vines coexist in an intact ecosystem.
The two Malerba estates represent two geological faces of Valdarno. Marco's Tenuta Bracciolini: rocky, poor, steep, sandy Chianti soils — vines struggle, roots dig deep, wines are tense, mineral, and angular. Filippo's Cavriglia: deep clay balze (clay cliffs) — water-retentive, cool, producing grapes of natural acidity, thick skins, and dense structure. The combination gives Malerba a range of expression impossible from a single terroir. The calanchi (badlands) landscape is almost lunar — dramatic clay formations carved by erosion. A terroir that demands wildness and rewards patience.
Certified organic by Suolo & Salute. Very little copper and sulfur. The vineyard is deliberately kept messy — abundant weeds, bushes, shrubs, and trees growing among the vines. Vines tied with vinco branches, not wire. The name Malerba honors weeds as allies, not enemies. The goal is to create an intact ecosystem capable of reacting to external stimuli without human interference. Marco and Filippo behave in the vineyard "as if they do not exist." They observe moon phases for racking (grandfather's teaching) but refuse rigid biodynamic protocols. The vineyard is a habitat, not a monoculture — a wild-looking but carefully balanced organism where the vine is one participant among many.
In the cellar, Marco and Filippo are "the most Taliban possible." The only ingredient is grapes. No added sulfites, no biotechnology, no oenological aids, no additives, no protocols. No machinery. No technology. No heat, no cold. No electricity — except for the initial crushing. Everything is done by hand. The wines are made through long skin contact (up to 144 days in fiberglass tanks) that completely transforms the fruit, stripping away corruptible matter and leaving only the deepest, most essential memory of the grape. The result is not a product but a substance — wine as alchemy, not industry. Ultra-light bottles, recycled paper labels, wire cages. Every detail is ecosustainable.
Alchemical Transformation & the Substance, Not the Product
The guiding philosophy of Malerba is expressed in one radical distinction: wine is not a product; it is a substance. This is not semantics; it is the foundation of everything Marco and Filippo do. A product is the transformation of something else — standardized, homogenized, destined for a specific consumer. A substance is what you obtain without taking the wine anywhere, without forcing it into a shape, without adding or subtracting anything to please a market. As Filippo explains: "The product is destined for a type of consumer. The substance is what you manage to obtain without taking the wine anywhere. Difficult to sell because we insert ourselves into a commercial context. But it makes our wines much more open and recognizable for a specific characteristic." This is the Malerba manifesto: not natural wine as a trend, but wine as a philosophical and chemical reality.
The methodology is the most radical in Italian natural wine. All grapes are hand-harvested across the 2.5 hectares, and the only intervention in the cellar is the initial pigiadiraspatura (crushing and destemming). After that, no electricity. No temperature control — no heating, no cooling. No pumps. No machines. Everything is done by hand, in silence, with patience. Fermentation is spontaneous — initiated by the indigenous yeasts that live on the grape skins and in the wild air of Valdarno. Marco and Filippo do not inoculate, adjust, or force. They do not add sulfur at any stage — zero added sulfites. They do not use biotechnology, enzymes, oenological aids, or any additives whatsoever. There is no protocol, no recipe, no consultant. There is only the grape, the vessel, and time.
The defining technique is long skin contact — up to 144 days in fiberglass tanks. This is not maceration as a stylistic choice; it is alchemical transformation. The goal is not to extract color or tannin, but to allow the complete interaction between the liquid and solid parts of the grape. Over months, the wine strips away the most material and changeable components of the fruit — the volatile, the superficial, the corruptible — and leaves only the deepest, most essential information: the memory of the fruit. This memory begins with the life of the plant that generated the grape, passes through the caretakers who nurtured it in the vineyard and preserved it in the cellar, and resurfaces in the bottle after long maturation. The result is a wine that is not merely fermented grape juice but a distilled essence of place, time, and intention — a substance that carries the fingerprint of the Valdarno clay and the Chianti rock in a form that transcends conventional wine categories.
The cellar is not a technological facility; it is a laboratory of subtraction — a space where the absence of intervention is the only tool. Marco and Filippo are not making wine in the conventional sense; they are allowing wine to become itself. They do not chase consistency; they chase truth. Each vintage is different because each vintage is a conversation between the two terroirs, the weather, and the wild yeasts. The result is a portfolio of wines that are honest, radical, and alive — wines that change in the glass, that evolve for years in the bottle, and that carry the unmistakable signature of two friends who have spent their lives learning to do nothing. As one journalist noted after visiting them: "Impossible not to be struck (and sunk) by statements of this kind."
Zero Sulfites, No Electricity, 144-Day Skin Contact & Alchemical Transformation
The guiding principle of Malerba's winemaking is that the only ingredient is the grape. Their approach — organic farming across 2.5 hectares of old native vines on two distinct Valdarno terroirs, hand harvest, spontaneous fermentation with indigenous yeasts, zero added sulfites, zero biotechnology, zero oenological aids, zero additives, zero protocols, no machinery, no technology, no heat, no cold, no electricity after crushing, and up to 144 days of skin contact in fiberglass tanks — is not a rejection of modernity but a deeper application of ancient wisdom. The long maceration does not extract; it transforms. The wine strips away the corruptible matter and leaves only the deepest memory of the fruit — the life of the plant, the care of the caretakers, the voice of the clay and the rock. The cellar is not a factory; it is an alchemical laboratory where two friends, the grape, and time do the work, and Marco and Filippo provide the patience, the intuition, and the absolute refusal to add, subtract, or manipulate what nature has already perfected.
Ontano Nero, Ronzamoro, Zizzania & the Alchemical Portfolio
Marco Valentini and Filippo Artini produce a tiny, irreplaceable portfolio from 2.5 hectares of old native vines on the rocky Chianti slopes and deep Valdarno clay of their two estates. The wines are not merely bottles; they are substances — each cuvée the result of months of alchemical transformation, where the liquid and solid parts of the grape interact until only the deepest, most essential memory of the fruit remains. The portfolio spans red and sparkling, all united by a common foundation: hand-picked grapes, spontaneous fermentation with indigenous yeasts, zero added sulfites, zero additives, no machinery, no electricity, and months of skin contact. The names are evocative and deeply personal: Ontano Nero — black alder, a tree of water and shadow; Ronzamoro — a buzzing, dark, almost onomatopoeic name that suggests the hum of the vineyard; Zizzania — darnel, the wild grass that grows among wheat, a weed that is both threat and companion; and Sghiribizzo — a whim, a caprice, a sudden inspiration. The portfolio is minuscule — just a few thousand bottles from 2.5 hectares — but each bottle is a testament to the conviction that wine should be a substance, not a product, and that the only ingredient worth adding is time.
"The product is destined for a type of consumer. The substance is what you manage to obtain without taking the wine anywhere. Difficult to sell because we insert ourselves into a commercial context. But it makes our wines much more open and recognizable for a specific characteristic."
— Filippo Artini
The Weed Manifesto & the Substance Over the Product
To understand Malerba, one must understand that it is not merely a winery; it is a philosophical project, a friendship in wine form, and a proof that doing nothing can be the most radical act. The identity of the project is defined by the weed — the name Malerba honors what conventional agriculture destroys, and the vineyard is a testament to the belief that weeds are allies, not enemies, essential to the ecosystem's integrity. The identity is also defined by friendship — Marco and Filippo, friends since high school in Montevarchi, who have made their shared vision of unrepeatable wines the vessel for a lifelong conversation. The estate is not a business; it is a zingarata — a wander without a destination, where the journey and the friendship matter more than the arrival.
The identity is also defined by radical minimalism — the refusal to add, subtract, heat, cool, pump, or manipulate. In the vineyard, they behave as if they do not exist. In the cellar, they are the most Taliban possible. The result is not a product but a substance — wine that carries the memory of the plant, the care of the caretakers, and the voice of the Valdarno clay and Chianti rock. The packaging reflects this ethos: ultra-light bottles to reduce carbon footprint, recycled paper labels, wire cages instead of foil. Every detail is ecosustainable not as marketing but as moral coherence. The Alchemy Wine Tasting they offer — 80€ per person, three hours — is not a commercial experience but a philosophical one: a conversation about water naturally contained in grapes, the elimination of the most material components of the fruit, and the emergence of the deepest, most essential information.
The future of Malerba is tied to the continued health of their 2.5 hectares of old native vines, the deepening of their alchemical methods, and the gradual expansion of a portfolio that already spans red and sparkling. Marco and Filippo are eager to go further — to experiment with longer macerations, to explore new expressions of the white varieties, and to obtain ever more essential, irreplaceable substances from the fruit of their two Valdarno terroirs. The Ontano Nero will continue to be the flagship red, the Zizzania the sparkling ambassador, and the Ronzamoro the buzzing, energetic voice of the vineyard. They do not chase trends; they chase the truth of their land, and they have the patience to let that truth speak in its own voice — a voice that is wild, messy, and unmistakably itself.
In an age of increasing industrialisation in wine — of global varieties, engineered yeasts, and corporate consolidation — Malerba stands as a compelling alternative, not because it rejects modernity but because it has embraced a deeper modernity: one that values weeds over herbicides, mess over order, vinco branches over wire, zero sulfites over preservative caution, no electricity over technological convenience, no machinery over efficiency, 144 days of skin contact over quick extraction, substance over product, friendship over business, the intact ecosystem over the monoculture, and the specific voice of Valdarno over the standardised replication of a global style. Marco Valentini and Filippo Artini are not merely making wine; they are proving that two friends from a high school in Montevarchi can create something unrepeatable, that 2.5 hectares of messy vineyard can produce substances of international recognition, that a wine with nothing added but time and friendship can possess the most profound identity, and that the simplest philosophy — the only ingredient is the grape — is often the most radical. From the first vagiti in 2018 to the 2024 release: all united in two estates, one friendship, one unanswerable argument for the possibility of authentic, alchemical, hand-made, passionately honest wine from the clay and rock heart of Valdarno.
Marco Valentini (agronomist) and Filippo Artini (oenologist) — friends since high school in Montevarchi, united by a shared vision of unrepeatable wines. On 20 hectares in Valdarno (2.5 vitated), they farm two distinct estates: Marco's rocky Chianti-side Tenuta Bracciolini and Filippo's deep-clay Cavriglia. In the vineyard they behave as if they do not exist; in the cellar they are the most Taliban possible. The only ingredient is grapes. The result is not a product but a substance — wine as alchemy, not industry. This is a winery where friendship, weeds, and the absolute refusal to intervene produce wines of unmistakable radical truth.
Four absolute commitments: organic farming with very little copper and sulfur, hand harvest, spontaneous fermentation with indigenous yeasts, and zero added sulfites, zero biotechnology, zero oenological aids, zero additives, zero protocols. No machinery, no technology, no heat, no cold, no electricity after crushing. Up to 144 days of skin contact in fiberglass tanks for complete alchemical transformation. Ultra-light bottles, recycled paper labels, wire cages. The wines are as natural and radical as Italian wine comes — farmed on rocky Chianti slopes and deep Valdarno clay, spontaneously fermented, and transformed by time into substances of essential memory. The cellar is not a factory; it is an alchemical laboratory where two friends, the grape, and time do the work, and Marco and Filippo provide the patience, the intuition, and the absolute refusal to add what is not needed.