Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

A vineyard that was given to Leonardo da Vinci by the Duke of Milan, Lodovico Sforza, in the year 1499, as payment for a commissioned representation of The Last Supper, has been restored and replanted with the Italian white grape variety Malvasia di Candia.

Following his death 20 years later in 1519, da Vinci bequeathed the vineyard to two of his most loyal servants and the vines were worked up until World War II when it was destroyed during a bombing raid in 1943.

The recreation of the vineyard sponsored by Confagricoltura, an Italian agricultural organisation, hopes to open the vineyard up to the public this May to coincide with the world fair Expo 2015 which is being held in Milan.

The vineyard is located at the Casa degli Atellani in central Milan, in the garden of the palazzo in Milan’s Corso Magenta, just a short distance from the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, where da Vinci painted The Last Supper.

The project started in 2004, when experts, working together with the property’s current owners, found a few surviving vine roots which were subjected to genetic testing at the University of Milan and determined as Malvasia di Candia.

The eventual aim is to reproduce the same style of crisp white wine that the Italian genius enjoyed on his estate some 500 years ago.