“Butterfly Day” in Bolgheri: the freeing of butterflies among the most poetic vineyards worldwide

A “sui generis” and special event (repeated over the years, for example in 2018 and again in 2022), in which butterflies are released directly among the rows of vines, with the aim of celebrating and emphasizing biodiversity and environmental health: butterflies are, in fact, indicator insects which live only in healthy, clean ecosystems free from aggressive chemicals. Just like the vineyards of Tenuta Ca’ Marcanda, the Bolgheri estate of the Gaja family, managed with great attention to sustainability, which promotes “Butterfly Day” in one of the most prestigious and renowned wine regions in the world for its iconic wines, but also for the beauty of a landscape which symbolizes Tuscany and Italy, nestled between the famous Viale dei Cipressi, immortalized in the verses of the great poet Giosuè Carducci, and the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Giovanni Gaja, Rossana Gaja and Gaia Gaja, who run the family winery together with their father Angelo Gaja, the quintessential “artisan of wine”, explained that this is a way to highlight how their vineyards are a perfect habitat for these “fundamental insects in agriculture”, and it perfectly reflects their philosophy: not only great wines- such as those of Ca’ Marcanda, acquired in Bolgheri in 1996, but also Barbaresco and Barolo, which have written the history of the Langhe and are now among the most listed and sought-after wines in the world, not to mention Pieve Santa Restituta in Montalcino of Brunello, and Idda, the joint project of the Gaja and Graci families on Mount Etna, but also respect for nature and the land, which they “demonstrate in this way too, with a gesture that is both poetic and concrete”.
In particular, Giovanni Gaja added to WineNews, “in the vineyards there are many beneficial insects, from bees to wasps, from earthworms to mice, from snakes to butterflies, which are very emotional and, above all, are a symbol of the biodiversity of Ca’ Marcanda, because they are “biological sentinels”: they live only in places which are clean, healthy and where there is environmental balance, and when we see them flying in the vineyards it means we are heading in the right direction and working in the proper way. But they are also a symbol of transformation, because from caterpillars they become chrysalides and then butterflies, and this is like a metaphor for Ca’ Marcanda, which, in 30 years, has taken flight. Not by chance, the labels of all the wines of our estate are inspired by the Viale dei Bolgheri, but also recall a butterfly with its wings spread”.