Brunello, what a passion! Not since the times of the Guelphs and Ghibellines had the loud cries of challenge resounded in Tuscany. When the Italian-American brothers John and Harry Mariani junior arrived in Montalcino from the United States forty years ago, the dimensions of their project seemed disproportionate and out of place to many. There was great dismay and often annoyance at the industrial enterprise with its strongly commercial nature that the “Americans” had in mind. How could they be able to make “theirs” the historic, prized, fantastic Brunello?!
40 years ago, the landing in Tuscany of the Italian-American Mariani brothers who brought Brunello all over the world aroused no small amount of skepticism
And then over time the criticism was for the use of helicopters for transportation, for managers but also for spraying the vineyards with insecticides, for the parade of caterpillars, for the grandiosity of intentions and the deployment of means shown by the Marianis. So much land, purchased piece by piece, day after day, at a low price from small owners, uncultivated and dominated by brambles; a castle, that of Poggio alle Mura, conquered after having abandoned the idea of building a “Disney model”, where to welcome the many future customers, especially Americans, lovers of Brunello, a wine appreciated for centuries thanks to historic producers such as Biondi Santi and Francesca Colombini of the Fattoria dei Barbi, as the winemaker Ezio Rivella said, who considered them attentive interlocutors. Behind John and Harry was the company called Banfi by their ancestors in the early 900s, in honor of their aunt Teodolinda Banfi, governess of Cardinal Ratti, the future Pius XI, who had hosted them in Milan during their years of study in Italy. A company that imported and promoted Italian wines in the United States. And so Brunello di Banfi also arrived in New York. The “nectar of the gods” of Montalcino, capable of competing with Barolo, would land in the world and it would be the glasses filled with that intense ruby red Sangiovese, fascinating and with a great impact on the palate and nose that would become a global success. In September 1984 – yes!! exactly 40 years have passed! – the Banfi winery in Montalcino was inaugurated. Ezio Rivella, the world-famous Piedmontese oenologist and manager to whom the enterprise was entrusted by the Marianis, welcomed with applause the brothers and their wives who had arrived from the United States to celebrate an event so exceptional that it was reported by journalists who had come from all over the world.
A colossus of almost three thousand hectares of which 800 are vineyards that produces around 10 million bottles of wine every year
Banfi helicopters circle in the sky carrying political and industrial figures, among a thousand colored balloons and Tuscan dishes for the holidays, bottles of wine and fireworks. The story of a day becomes legend. The rest is history, that of Montalcino, of its prestige, of its land and of the Mariani enterprise today entrusted to the new generations with Cristina Mariani-May who coordinates the activities of the company, a colossus of almost three thousand hectares of which 800 are vineyards that produces about 10 million bottles of wine every year. And at Castello Banfi they toast the anniversary, with a new site, new ideas and 'sa va sans dire' a glass of Brunello.
