Celebrities who owns Wineries – Andrea Bocelli

When God Gave One Man a Voice & a Vineyard

Let me tell you something about Andrea Bocelli that most people don’t know.

Before the world knew his voice. Before the Grammy nominations, the sold-out arenas, the duets with Celine Dion and Ed Sheeran, the performance at the Pope’s front door — before all of that — Andrea Bocelli was just a boy growing up on a farm in a tiny Tuscan village called Lajatico, riding horses and drinking his family’s wine.

Actually, scratch that. He probably wasn’t drinking wine as a boy. But the wine was definitely there. It’s always been there.

Because here’s the thing about the Bocelli family that will stop you mid-sip — they have been making wine in Tuscany since 1831. Nearly 200 years. Eight generations. Long before Andrea opened his mouth and made Celine Dion declare that if God had a singing voice, it would sound like him.

Celine said that. Not me.

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The Village Nobody Had Heard Of (Until They Had)

Lajatico is a small hilltop village in the province of Pisa, Tuscany. Population? Just over 1,400 people. Quiet, beautiful, completely unbothered by the outside world.

Or at least it was.

Then Andrea Bocelli was born there on September 22, 1958 — and everything changed. Slowly at first, then spectacularly.

He grew up on the family farm, surrounded by vineyards, olive trees, horses, and the kind of Tuscan landscape that makes you want to paint something even if you’ve never held a brush. His mother Edi and his father Alessandro made wine and sold agricultural machinery. It was a simple life rooted in land, family, and tradition.

And then there was the music.

From the very beginning, music was the thing. His mother has said that as a baby, the only thing that would calm him down was music. By age six he was already playing piano. Later came the flute. Then the voice — that voice — which it turns out had been quietly waiting for its moment the entire time.

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The Part of the Story That Will Give You Chills

Here’s something that doesn’t get talked about enough.

Before Andrea was born, his mother was advised by her doctors to abort him. They believed he would be born with a disability and strongly recommended she terminate the pregnancy.

She refused.

Andrea was born. And he was, as the doctors predicted, born with poor eyesight — a condition that would eventually lead to complete blindness after a football accident at age twelve. But his mother’s refusal to give up on him before he even arrived in the world? That decision gave us one of the greatest voices in human history.

Imagine the world without Andrea Bocelli. Take a moment. Really imagine it.

No Time to Say Goodbye. No Con te partirò. No Ave Maria at the Olympics. No duet with Ed Sheeran.

I can’t. I refuse.

Moving on.

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So. The Wine.

While all of this extraordinary life was unfolding — the blindness, the law degree (yes, he studied law), the years playing piano bars before anyone noticed him, the late-blooming music career that didn’t really take off until he was nearly 40 — the family vineyard in Lajatico just kept doing what it had always done.

Making wine.

Quietly. Consistently. Beautifully.

Today the winery operates under the name Bocelli 1831 — named for the year the family first began their winemaking journey on this land. Andrea and his brother Alberto now oversee the estate, and the tradition has been passed to the next generation too, with Andrea’s eldest son Amos now involved.

The vineyards sit on a ridge between two rivers in Lajatico, and the estate grows traditional Tuscan varieties — Sangiovese, Canaiolo, Malvasia, Trebbiano — alongside Cabernet Sauvignon, which they planted over twenty years ago after discovering that their particular terroir was exceptionally well suited for it.

The flagship wine is called Alcide — a Super Tuscan blend of Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon, named after Andrea’s grandfather, the man who transformed and expanded the estate in the 1930s. It is, by all accounts, exceptional. The kind of wine that makes you sit quietly for a moment after the first sip.

Which, come to think of it, is exactly what happens the first time you hear Andrea sing.

Coincidence? I think not.

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The Wine That Sings (I Had To)

Look, I’m not going to throw tasting notes at you like a wine exam. But I will say this — the Bocelli wines taste exactly like what they are. Wines made by a family who have been doing this for nearly 200 years on the same land, with the same care, for generation after generation.

The Sangiovese is hand harvested, dry farmed, no pesticides anywhere near it. It tastes of dark cherry and ripe berries with a dry, satisfying finish that makes you reach for another glass before you’ve even finished thinking about the first one. Wine people will call it complex. Everyone else will just call it very, very good.

Then there’s the Prosecco — made in collaboration with the Lovo family in the Veneto, all citrus and peach with that beautiful crisp fizz that makes you feel like you’re celebrating something even when absolutely nothing special is happening. Tuesday afternoon? Celebration. Rain outside? Celebration. Found a good parking spot? Pop it open.

And if Tuscany is ever on your travel list — and it should be, frankly, it should be at the very top — you can visit the estate, taste the wines, and wander through Officine Bocelli, the family’s wine bar right in the heart of Lajatico. There’s also a small museum there dedicated to Andrea’s life. Stage costumes, childhood photos, concert footage. The whole story in one room.

But the real thing — the thing that will genuinely stop you — is the Teatro del Silenzio.

In 2006, Andrea Bocelli helped build an open-air amphitheatre on the hillside just outside Lajatico. No roof. No walls. Just the Tuscan sky, the rolling hills, and thousands of seats carved into the landscape. It hosts exactly one concert every July. One night. One performance.

Then it goes completely silent for the rest of the year.

Three hundred and sixty four days of silence. Waiting.

Every July, Bocelli comes home and the village of 1,400 people suddenly becomes 10,000 overnight. People travel from all over the world to sit on that hillside and hear that voice in the place that made him.

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What Makes This Different From Every Other Celebrity Winery

Most celebrity wineries are passion projects. Someone gets rich, falls in love with wine, buys a beautiful property in France or Napa, hires excellent people, and puts their name on the label.

Nothing wrong with that. We’ve talked about a few of them on this blog — Francis Ford Coppola, Sting, Brad and Angelina and their ongoing $164 million courtroom situation.

But Bocelli is different.

The wine didn’t come after the fame. The wine was always there — before the voice was discovered, before the world knew his name, before anything. The Bocelli family was farming this land and making wine for over a century before Andrea sang his first note professionally.

He didn’t buy a winery. He was born into one.

And that, to me, makes every bottle taste just a little bit better.

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The Quote That Says Everything

Andrea Bocelli once said about his family’s wine:

“For me, wine is the taste and smell of returning home and of celebration. A bottle of wine is a bottle of happiness that represents vacation and rest.”

A man who has performed for world leaders, royalty, and the Pope. A man with over 70 million albums sold. A man whose voice has been called the closest thing to divine that human ears have ever heard.

And for him, wine just means home.

I don’t know about you, but that makes me want to open a bottle right now.

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If you’re enjoying this celebrity winery series, don’t miss the stories of Sting’s Tuscan estate, Francis Ford Coppola’s wine empire, and the ongoing drama at Château Miraval. Subscribe to the newsletter and be the first to know who’s next.

— Kelly 🍷