Welcome to episode 1954 of the Italian Wine Podcast, Wine, Food & Travel With Marc Millon. Today, he is interviewing John Mattai. They talk about Castello Vicchiomaggio located in Tuscany. More about today’s guest: Born in London in 1949 from a wine importing family. John's Father, Italian born Federico Matta, founded F.S. Matta Ltd in 1921.  In the early 1950s the business grew into the UK's largest Italian wine importer and introduced Campari to the UK. John initially  went to school in the UK and in 1966 lived/worked for a year in Nuits-St-Georges with wine producers Dufouleur Freres, followed by  three years at Italy's prestigeous school of Oenology and Viticulture at Alba in Piemonte. The Castello Vicchiomaggio estate was purchased in 1964 and John's first harvest there was in 1970, he has not missed one since. John married in 1982 and now has three daughters, a son and five grand children, all boys ranging in age from 3-8 years old. John's wife and all the children work  in the various activities that the estate is involved in: wine and Olive Oil  production, restaurant, hotel rooms (agriturismo), a retail shop and daily cellar tours and wine tastings. Over the years the Castello Vicchiomaggio wine production has received the highest accolades possible. The estate is of 150 ha of which 25ha planted with vineyards (Chianti Classico), a vineyard of 11ha  in the Maremma part of Tuscany was purchased in 2021. Connect: Website:www.vicchiomaggio.it Instagram: @castellovicchiomaggio Facebook: castello vicchiomaggio  More about the host Marc Millon: Marc Millon, VIA Italian Wine Ambassador 2021, has been travelling, eating, drinking, learning and writing about wine, food and travel for nearly 40 years. Born in Mexico, with a mother from Hawaii via Korea and an anthropologist father from New York via Paris, he was weaned on exotic and delicious foods. Marc and his photographer wife Kim are the authors of 14 books including a pioneering series of illustrated wine-food-travel books: The Wine Roads of Europe, The Wine Roads of France, The Wine Roads of Italy (Premio Barbi Colombini), and The Wine Roads of Spain. Other titles include The Wine and Food of Europe, The Food Lovers’ Companion Italy, The Food Lovers’ Companion France, Wine, a global history. Marc regularly lectures and hosts gastronomic cultural tours to Italy and France with Martin Randall Travel, the UK’s leading cultural travel specialist. He is soon to begin a regular series on Italian Wine Podcast, ‘Wine, food and travel with Marc Millon’. When not on the road Marc lives on the River Exe in Devon, England Connect: quaypress.uk/ marcmillon.co.uk vino.co.uk quaypress.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/marc-millon-50868624 Twitter: @Marc_Millon _______________________________ Let's keep in touch! Follow us on our social media channels: Instagram www.instagram.com/italianwinepodcast/  Facebook www.facebook.com/ItalianWinePodcast  Twitter www.twitter.com/itawinepodcast  Tiktok www.tiktok.com/@mammajumboshrimp  LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/company/italianwinepodcast  If you feel like helping us, donate here www.italianwinepodcast.com/donate-to-show/ Until next time, Cin Cin! Thanks for listening! -  This show is all about food and wine pairings, and traveling through Italy with Marc. Join his food, wine and cultural journey!