Cashmere king Brunello Cucinelli has simply unveiled his new wine enterprise – and newest venture from the Umbrian hamlet he’s been restoring during the last 40 years, Solomeo. Right here’s every little thing it is advisable to know concerning the style icon’s Castello di Solomeo
In regards to the producer
Castello di Solomeo is designer Brunello Cucinelli’s new wine venture. It realises the cult Italian designer’s dream of championing and preserving the hamlet of Solomeo – the particular place that he calls house.
Brunello Cucinelli based his firm specialising in cashmere knitwear in 1978 with a transparent philosophy – based mostly on the precept of humanistic capitalism. As a part of this, he believes deeply in “preserving and educating historic crafts, together with rural ones, of nice historic and cultural worth”.
“My household has humble origins, we had been farmers,” Cucinelli says. “I spent the primary a part of my life dwelling within the nation, and I nonetheless cherish the reminiscence of it as one of many happiest occasions of my life: though we didn’t have electrical energy in the home, we lacked nothing and we lived in concord with creation, with animals, with the land and with the rhythm of the seasons. Later, once we moved to town and my father went to work in a manufacturing facility, I vividly bear in mind how he would come house from work with tears in his eyes, humiliated; that’s after I determined: I nonetheless didn’t know what I used to be going to do with my life, however I used to be going to do it for the ethical and financial dignity of human beings.”
Solomeo embodies this philosophy – an Umbrian hamlet that Brunello Cucinelli has poured his soul into. Between Florence and Rome in Umbria, the Solomeo vineyard and winery are half of a bigger venture that started in 2010, beneath the identify Undertaking for Magnificence. After devoting three a long time to restoring the hamlet, the Cucinelli household started salvaging the valley under Solomeo, subsequent to the style firm’s headquarters. It’s right here that Cucinelli planted vines in 2011. The primary classic of the wine is 2018, set to be launched in 2023.
Within the winery
The vineyard and vineyards are unfold over six hectares, modelled on late Italian Renaissance gardens, with gardens and an olive grove in between (with olive oil, one other Mediterranean custom, produced from the olive bushes). As with Brunello Cucinelli’s garments, the main target right here is fully on high quality and craft – with immense consideration to element within the winery and vineyard, combining conventional strategies with cutting-edge know-how.
The vines – Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Sangiovese – had been planted in 2011, representing 5 of the six hectares of land, on clay-sand alluvial, clay-silt alluvial and marly arenaceous soils, with every selection rigorously matched to its soils. The vines are planted in an uncommon wave form to maximise their solar publicity and aeration.
All work within the winery is finished by hand, with green-harvesting key to decreasing yield and rising focus and complexity within the fruit harvested.
Within the vineyard
The wine is a Tremendous Tuscan type mix, combining Bordeaux varieties (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot) with native Sangiovese.
The grapes are all hand-picked, de-stemmed and sorted, with pumps averted to make sure the fruit is dealt with as gently as attainable. Fermentation takes place in oak vats, with punching down over 10-14 days to extract color and tannin. Solely the free-run juice is retained for the ultimate mix. The wines are aged for 16 months in 100% new French oak (with the cooper and toast stage thought of for every particular person plot), the mix made simply earlier than bottling, and the ultimate wine then aged for 3 years in bottle previous to launch.
