I am sitting facing Chianti countryside on a balmy, cricket-filled September night. Like a triptych painting in a portrait gallery a ripple of hills stretch before me, lit up by sparkling villages along its crest. The peace is resounding. My only companion is a fir tree rising up like a lollipop over my deck chair. Wafts of rosemary, lavender and thyme scent the air.

Tuscany’s organic winemaking cradle, Panzano di Chianti, is tucked amid bottle green hills and valleys some 25 kilometres (15 miles) south of Florence. Organic wine pursuits were the big hook of my first trip here a few years ago, and I keep coming back. The vineyards are dotted by graceful sentinels of cypress trees stretching to the horizon. This was the first organic wine district in Italy.