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Gorgona is a paradisiacal little Tuscan island, lush with a sensuous, abundant nature, edged with turquoise coves. But don’t even think about dropping anchor there—let alone spending your holidays: its only residents are former criminals, serving Italy’s maximum sentence, set at twenty years. After a few years of good behaviour, they may apply to spend the final years of their sentence there, working in the vineyards and being paid the standard rate.
Certain past crimes are disqualifying: mafia ties, drug offences, or sexual crimes. All—except one inmate whose résumé had somehow slipped past the casting directors’ vigilance. Linked to the mafia, he is also the only person ever to have escaped from the island. We’re told the man did not lack humour: having fled the island with accomplices who came to pick him up by boat, he sent a postcard every year to the prison governor to mark the anniversary of his escape.
This social reintegration project is run by the Frescobaldi group, which owns several Tuscan estates. One hundred prisoners are trained in viticulture and winemaking. Locked up outside working hours, they otherwise spend their time in the vines or in the cellars, paid at the same hourly rate as the group’s agricultural workers—allowing them to build a small nest egg to help them start again, some of them by staying in the wine trade. The 2.5 hectares of vines—three-quarters Vermentino, complemented by the local variety Ansonica—are used by the inmates to produce 8,000 bottles of organic wine.
The result of this collective work tastes of forgiveness: a luminous, pure wine, very fresh, with notes of rosemary and peach, and pronounced saline tones on both nose and palate—long as a life sentence. A real success, and the expression of teamwork carried through to completion. The social project is just as fruitful: while the reoffending rate usually hovers around 85%, it is only 15% among former residents of Gorgona…
GV
Frescobaldi wines
Gorgona island
Signore Frescobaldi
Gorgona une île pénitentaire
Gorgona, tuscany
