Le Monde: a farmhouse, a family, Pinot Bianco

On the border between Veneto and Friuli, near Portobuffolè, 2023

Every morning on his way to work, Alex Maccan, a furniture entrepreneur, drove past an old farmhouse among hedges and vines that once belonged to the tenant farmers of the Venetian Giustinian family. In 2008, when the chance came, he bought it. Inside there was already a winery, Le Monde, known for its Pinot Bianco. He wanted to make wine "my way".

A family, not an org chart

Beside Alex is his wife Marta, who made Le Monde her full-time work. In the vineyard there is agronomist Andrea Pittana; in the cellar, winemaker Giovanni Ruzzene. At the time of our visit the numbers were already those of an international estate: 160 hectares, 100 under vine, around 700,000 bottles, 70% sold abroad in some forty countries.

Soil and Pinot Bianco

Clay and limestone on top, gravel below, the Alps on one side and the Adriatic on the other. The soil is rich in active limestone, and this is where Pinot Bianco, a difficult grape, finds a home: power and freshness together, notes of peach and spice. Every wine is a single variety, so the land reads without filters.

Labels that tell a family story

The Le Icone line is the most personal. Inaco, a Refosco dal Peduncolo Rosso, carries the name of Alex's father. .73 is a Merlot dedicated to his brother, born in 1973 and lost too soon. Alma, a Pinot Bianco riserva, joins the initials of Alex and Marta.

Why it stays with you

• A name is a story. Anyone who asks why a wine is called Inaco listens, and then remembers.
• The place does the welcoming. A restored farmhouse, a tasting room looking over the fields, a guesthouse with a pool.
• The clarity of single varieties. Each bottle says one thing, and says it clearly.

Since 2021 the Maccan family has added La Ponca, in the Collio, devoted to Friuli's great white wines.