A real “Wine Symposium” was staged in Solomeo in front of the national and international press to unveil “Castello di Solomeo” the flagship wine of Brunello Cucinelli‘s winery, announced as “a tribute to Mother Earth.” It was also announced that the sale of the wine will also be used to build libraries around the world.
The agricultural project had been conceived as early as 2007, with wine seen not as an end but as the means to get to restore “dignity to the land and to the noble work in agriculture.” As a source of inspiration, Cucinelli spoke of Marchesi Antinori’s Guado al Tasso estate in the “small and prestigious” Bolgheri DOC on the upper Maremma coast.
The entrepreneur enlisted the help of internationally renowned winemaker Riccardo Cotarella from Umbria, who said, “I think we got a great wine, and since it is produced by someone who has always made style his trademark, this wine had to have a strong character.” Planted in 2011, the vineyard covers an area of 5 hectares and is capable of producing about 9 thousand bottles per year.
The grapes chosen for “Castello di Solomeo” are Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot, from which the prestigious Bordeaux blend is made, to which Sangiovese is added as a tribute to the culture and winemaking tradition of central Italy. The more than 20,000 plants wind along the rows following a wave pattern to make the vineyard resemble a “garden” and allow the plants, thanks to their exposure, to receive the maximum amount of light favoring aeration.
