Brunello Cucinelli Presents His First Wine
● Cucinelli unveiled, with "a dinner of gratitude," the 2018 vintage of the Rosso del Castello di Solomeo.
MILAN — Only Brunello Cucinelli could describe the event to present the first wine produced in Solomeo, Italy, as “the dinner of gratitude.”
On Wednesday evening, Cucinelli held a dinner at the Istituto dei Ciechi, a beautiful frescoed palazzo in central Milan, which promotes independence, professional and cultural training of visually impaired people, to unveil the 2018 vintage of the Rosso del Castello di Solomeo, and to thank his friends, investors and journalists who have followed his work over the years. “We wanted to find a location that would represent spirituality and gratitude,” Cucinelli said.
Renowned oenologist Riccardo Cotarella advised Cucinelli on the project. “Wine is not simply a drink but it’s a cultural symbol of tradition and innovation,” he said at the event.
Planted in 2011, the vineyard covers an area of five hectares — six considering the gardens — in which three different types of soil alternate: alluvial clay-sandy, alluvial clay-silt and marly arenaceous, each carefully matched to a specific vine variety.
The production capacity stands at about 9,000 bottles a year.
The grapes chosen for the Castello di Solomeo wine are cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon and merlot, from which the prestigious Bordeaux blend is made; the Sangiovese vine is then added as a tribute to the culture and winemaking tradition of Central Italy.
Cucinelli emphasized that the vines in Solomeo, the medieval hamlet near Perugia that he has restored over the years and that is also home to his namesake company’s headquarters, “are cultivated according to the classic principles of viticulture, which I consider a true art; I like to think that our grapes can finally tell their own story of beauty. I believe there is nothing more beautiful than sharing this precious fruit, born out of a long process of care and custody, with lifelong friends and loved ones.”
This being Cucinelli, who’s known for his interest in philosophy and ancient civilizations, he quoted Greek rhetorician and grammarian Athenaeus of Naucratis, who in the 3rd century AD wrote in his “Deipnosophistae,” that it was “on the sea the color of wine that Dionysus brought all that is good for men.”
Just as it was back then, continued Cucinelli, he said he likes to “imagine that this wine of ours can gladden the most pleasant symposia of people renewing this most human of rituals.”
More than 20,000 vines wind along the undulating rows of the Solomeo vineyard “according to nature,” explained Cucinelli, arranging the rows following a wave pattern that “makes the vineyard similar to a garden that requires periodic and specific manual maintenance and allows the plants, thanks to their exposure, to receive the maximum amount of light whilst favoring aeration.”
More practically, Cucinelli once again touted the decision to publicly list his namesake company in 2012. “Without the IPO, which helped us create longevity for the company, we could not have done so many things,” he said simply. “And if we don’t sell our pullovers, we can’t make wine and oil,” he quipped.
In 2018, Cucinelli presented an additional step in the restoration of Solomeo’s outskirts, recovering 173 acres of land near his manufacturing plant and tearing down six old industrial buildings, planting vineyards, olive trees, sunflowers and wheat, among other things.
He set up the Cantina, or wine cellar, with a statue of Bacchus placed at the entrance and visible from the hamlet. At the time, he said that Pliny the Elder in his “Natural History,” wrote that “the grapevine is the symbol of work, the nobility of cultivation and worship. The wine cellar is the temple that I dreamed of dedicating to Mother Earth.”
Indeed, in the pamphlet to introduce the wine, Cucinelli expressed his love for the Earth. “The fruit of the vine, together with oil, which I have been producing for many years, is a primordial symbol of the Earth that has been handed down to us from time immemorial. I imagine wine from Solomeo as an act of filial sacredness toward the Earth, which inspires me in every choice, in life, in work, in the enchanted landscape.”
Always mindful of the changes taking place, he said he felt he could “see the dawning of a bright future where hi-tech, in harmony with biology, will increasingly be a precious tool for humanity, aware of the great symbols, the great ideals, the congenital values of the human species. Among these values wine is one of the noblest, source of that wisdom whose father was Dionysus, and which, regulated by Apollo according to what Nietzsche tells us, is the most human and complete form of knowledge.”