Five places, five stories, one vision. The Cantine Etiche project tells the story of Umbria through five wineries that represent the different souls of the region.
Each stage is a chapter: a different way of saying “wine,” “ethics,” and “beauty.” In every glass of Umbrian wine there is a fragment of soul: land, time, hand, light, and vision.
It is along these five trajectories that the journey through the Cantine Etiche unfolds.
A journey that crosses not only vineyards, but also thoughts.
The entrepreneurs, all linked to Umbria because it is the land of their families’ origins, or because it is a place they have always known and loved with the desire to return one day to make a small part of it even more beautiful, tell of “fantastic landscapes that we wanted to respect and improve by carefully and passionately renovating old farmhouses and keeping centuries-old buildings alive.”
✨ Second stop: Santo Iolo – where wine meets the design of the future
Every journey has a moment when the landscape changes pace.
After the slowness of the land and the breath of tradition, the Umbria of Cantine Etiche becomes light, architecture, vision.
It is time for Santo Iolo, a winery that seems designed to unite past and future, nature and technology, art and agriculture.
We are a few kilometers from Perugia, among hills that stretch out like motionless waves.
Here, wine is not just the fruit of the vineyard: it is a total sensory experience.
Santo Iolo was born from a specific idea—to transform wine production into an aesthetic and sustainable act, where every gesture, every space, every bottle respects the land but speaks the language of tomorrow.
The structure, with its clean lines and large windows that let in light as if it were an ingredient, is a statement of intent. It is here that the concept of “ethics” of the Cantine Etiche finds its visual form: transparency, in every sense.
Transparency in the process, in the dialogue with the environment, in the relationship with those who enter, taste, and listen.
A laboratory of sustainable elegance
Santo Iolo is not a winery to visit: it is a winery to experience.
Every element—from the suspended barrels to the natural oak tables, from the photovoltaic systems to the minimalist design—conveys an idea of harmony between matter and spirit, thanks to the professionalism of the two daughters, one an oenologist and the other a landscape architect.
The wine here comes from selected vines grown using organic methods: Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Sirah, Alicante, Pratalia in Anfora, and several others become the protagonists of modern, elegant, and vertical blends, capable of combining power and grace in a perfect synthesis.
Tasting at Santo Iolo means experiencing a symphony of sensations: clean aromas, enveloping structures, and mineral finishes that linger in the mouth like a promise kept.
But the experience does not stop at the glass: hospitality is an integral part of the project here, with spaces designed for conversation, for pausing, for listening. A contemplative dimension, almost Zen-like, which restores value to time and space to awareness.
Ethics as aesthetics
In the context of Cantine Etiche, Santo Iolo represents the avant-garde.
It is proof that wine can also be the language of the future, without denying the land from which it originates.
Here, ethics translates into design: no waste, natural materials, clean energy, virtuous processes.
But what is most striking is the consistency.
Every detail, from the cork to the lighting, conveys the same message: beauty is right, and what is right can be beautiful.
Participation in the network is not just symbolic: Santo Iolo hosts events, workshops, and meetings between the other wineries in the project, becoming the contemporary heart of the collaboration.
It is the place where Umbria looks at itself with new eyes—and understands that tradition and innovation are not opposites, but parts of the same breath.
A toast to the future
Together with the other four producers, Santo Iolo takes us into the future: a future made of light, sustainability, and thoughtful beauty. It is here that the journey of the Cantine Etiche finds its most daring projection: that of an Umbria capable of networking, but also of looking ahead, of combining wine with art, nature with technology, ethics with aesthetics.
A glass of Santo Iolo is not just a wine.
It is a statement.
A different way of saying “we,” when “we” means building together—with respect, with vision, with heart.
Hospitality
Santo Iolo is the most contemporary and visionary of the network’s wineries: an ideal bridge between Umbrian agricultural roots and the cosmopolitan elegance of new wine tourism.
The elegant and sustainable estate stands out not only for the quality of its wines but also for its location dedicated to hospitality, designed for those who want to experience the territory and not just pass through it.
A place where the greenery is authentic—vineyards, olive groves, centuries-old trees, and free-roaming animals—restores the feeling of a living, breathable, shared nature.
Guests can stroll among the rows of vines, stop in the gardens, listen to the silence of the countryside, and then find the reflection of everything around them in their glass. And also, why not, get to know and experience contact with the animals that are mascots and silent guests here.
From here, you can reach beautiful places such as Narni, with its truly evocative underground tour, and the Marmore Falls, a heritage site of authentic beauty.
Santo Iolo is, after all, a philosophy of hospitality: wine as language, the land as home, time as luxury.
A place where travel becomes dialogue—between man, nature, and beauty.
The journey continues, and changes pace… until the next episode.
