The della Gherardesca counts of Pisa have been one of the great noble families of Italy ever since the Middle Ages. Already known and feared at the time of Dante, who gave them a prominent place in the Inferno, their vast possessions along the Tuscan coast were virtually a fiefdom in itself. The area around Castangeto Carucci and Bolgheri were among their major holdings, and three of the largest and most prominent estates in the Bolgheri and Bolgheri Sassicaia appellations – San Guido, Ornellaia and Guado al Tasso – were all carved out of lands once belonging to the family.

The Castello di Bolgheri, a true castle in every sense, not always the case in Italy where the term is also applied to villas, manor houses, and other edfices of a certain dimension, was constructed by the counts in the XIII century. The cellars were built in the 18th century and, at the end of the 19th century, the tower and crenellation were added as if to certify that this is indeed a castle and not merely a large building.

The owner for many years of the property was Countess Franca Spalletti Zilieri Trivelli in Zileri Dal Verme, a descendent of the della Gherardesca counts, and her own family long had also had a prominent role in Italian wine. The Zileri Dal Verme counts, her descendants, are now the proprietors. Vineyards could obviously not be lacking and, in fact, amount to a substantial 125 acres; the vineyard work is supervised by Clemente Zileri while the cellar work is in the hands of Federico Zilieri. Two, and only two wines are produced, a refreshing simplification in an appellation where the range often seems pointlessly complicated: the regular bottling, Vavàra, a Bolgheri Rosso and the Castello di Bolgheri Bolgheri Rosso Superiore: the owners of an historic castle could obviously not be without a superior wine.