Viareggio builds yachts. The Darsena is lined with the yards that have made Tuscan yacht building what it is, and the traffic through the port is weighted toward boats being finished, launched, delivered and refitted rather than boats on holiday. That changes what provisioning means here: the question is usually not "what do the guests drink this week" but "what should be aboard on delivery day".

New-build cellar work is one of the things we do best, and the time to start is while the interior is still on paper. Racking and capacity are cheap to change during the build and expensive afterwards; the opening cellar should be composed to the owner’s brief rather than assembled in a hurry by the delivery crew; and the christening Champagne should be on ice rather than remembered on the morning. We have done this on a lot of boats.

Viareggio is inside our own van’s delivery zone, so we bring wine down from Antibes on a scheduled run rather than handing it to a carrier — usually within 48 hours, coordinated with the project manager or the owner’s team rather than left at a yard gate. For a yacht in build that coordination is most of the job.

A newly delivered yacht usually means a newly assembled interior team, and a cellar is only as good as the service that pours it. Our WSET courses and service coaching were founded by an ex-chief stewardess for exactly this moment, so the first owner trip is poured with confidence. After handover we stay the supplier in every port that follows — the Riviera is a day’s run from here.