Michele Marcucci

Michele Marcucci’s passion for wine has a distant origin. It starts in Pietrasanta (Lucca), where he was born, in the wine shop owned by his grandparents. Those were the days when they would deliver demijohns and flasks of wine, later recuperating the glass container. Michele and his brother spent their summers helping them. There was some champagne and high quality wine, but it was when his father introduced French wines and spirits, in 1987, that Michele and his brother, having just finished high school, decided to work full time at this project and turn the family shop into Enoteca Marcucci, now an emblem of wine in the heart of Versilia.

Michele is the soul of the place. With the help of his father, grilling, and his mother, cooking, he immediately focused on Tuscan food, often made so as to enhance the wines, and with a careful selection of the best gastronomic products: soup, cheese and cured meat, the extraordinary pappa al pomodoro, bread made in the wood oven, excellent chargrilled meat, a real icon for them, so much so they choose wood from strawberry trees, vines and holly oaks, combining it with coal from Maremma. 

Marcucci is a temple of simple cuisine, where they research on raw materials of the highest level and use ingredients from the family vegetable garden. There are over 3000 wines in the monumental cellar, including the most important and costly wines in the world, which best represent Michele’s philosophy, being a great expert and selector of rare wine as well as those produced by small emerging wineries. 

Michele’s interest in French wines grows each year thanks to his visits to Burgundy, so much so he has a champagne made specifically for him, Michel Basetta, by a small “recoltant” near Reims who makes some 4000 bottles for him each year. The biggest wine enthusiasts visit him to participate in fun “blinded” tastings making use of the many old vintages available and of the rich choice of wines from some regions such as Burgundy.

The setting, with vaulted ceilings, ancient floors and a fridge created in the front of a red Fiat Cinquecento, is constantly renewed thanks to the many artistic installations – another passion of Michele’s – enjoyed by the faithful and eclectic clientele, with plenty of artists, food lovers and tourists from all around the world.