François Desirè Bazie.
‘I first had the idea of producing wine back in Burkina Faso about four years ago,’ said François Desirè Bazie, an asylum seeker turned winemaker committed to seeing vineyards flourish in his home country in West Africa.
Born in Burkina Faso, Bazie sought asylum in Piedmont during the 2000s due to escalating civil conflict in Ivory Coast, where he resided at the time. While in Italy, he developed a passion for wine-growing that eventually led him to establish his own winery, InCandiaBio (see Facebook page), in the Colli Apuani region of northern Tuscany.
‘I noticed there were very few Italian goods available in Burkina Faso so I would bring my own wine to introduce it to the people there and to promote Italian products,’ said Bazie. His interest in developing the Burkinabe wine market was driven by both personal and commercial motivations: he wanted to see his products enjoyed in his home country, but he also recognised that wine was growing in popularity among local drinkers.
‘I observed a significant increase in wine consumption, with wine starting to replace beer. Wine shops were popping up everywhere, probably because wine is being promoted as part of a healthy diet,’ he said. ‘However, a lot of the wine sold in Burkina Faso is often of poor quality, some even comes from non-wine-producing countries.’
In his first attempt to grow vines in the West African country, Bazie brought Vermentino plant samples from his vineyard in Tuscany. He then planted them over
