September 17, 2026 - 0 comments
“Funky”: the word annoys Dario Nocci
A dirty wine is never a good natural wine. It may sound obvious, but at La Ginestra, in Panzano, they prefer to say it loud and clear: a natural wine worthy of the name should be able to appeal to everyone, natural wine lovers and others alike. In other words, it has to be clean. Dario Nocci, who runs this multifunctional eight-person estate alongside Alessandro Bicchi and Matteo Rinaldi, makes no compromises on this point.
Organic farming is nothing new here: the estate has been certified organic since 1989. Natural winemaking came more recently, in 2012. In between, there are eight hectares of vines in Tuscany, pigs and cows grazing on fallow land, ancient grains, legumes, alfalfa, beehives, a vegetable garden, CBD hemp and even a restaurant with guest rooms. A winery, but much more than that.
A hipster word, so what?
“Funky”: the term has been everywhere in recent years to describe natural wines with unusual aromas, sometimes animal, sometimes volatile. Dario Nocci has no problem saying it outright: it is a hipster word. But does that mean we should be wary of it?
Not really, according to him. The term has not ruined anything, nor has it created any real problem for the natural wine world. It is simply a label, and a label does not make something a fault. The real question is not whether a wine is funky or not: it is whether the wine is good.
Balance above all
There is still one sensitive subject: volatile acidity. In conventional winemaking, it is almost always considered a fault, a sign that something has gone wrong. Dario Nocci does not share such a black-and-white view.
For him, volatile acidity only becomes a problem when it throws the wine out of balance. And balance is precisely the common thread running through his entire approach to wine: as with everything, it is all a question of proportion. The right amount of volatile acidity can give a wine depth, add dimension and create extra tension. Taken too far, however, it becomes a fault, and the wine suffers as a result.
An honest bottle
What Dario Nocci is ultimately defending is a simple idea: natural wine is not an excuse. In a market going through difficult times, La Ginestra continues, bottle after bottle, to aim for wines that are clean, fault-free and honest. Not to tick a box, but because that is what anyone opening a bottle deserves.
