The social mission that started in 2012, in collaboration with Italy’s sole remaining island jail, celebrates its tenth classic
June ninth, 2022 – Gorgona, Italy. Gorgona’s tenth classic is the milestone of a journey that proves “Sure, we are able to!”. An journey which each June brings keen anticipation for the tasting of Frescobaldi’s cru wine from the Household’s eighth wine property. Established in 1869, the Gorgona mission lies on Italy’s final penal colony island. Since 2012, the inmates on the island have been cultivating Vermentino and Ansonica to supply wines of Gorgona, encouraging them to the significance of studying a brand new, hands-on career, and restoring religion sooner or later. The “compelling, wild wine”, Gorgona is infused with a collection of feelings, which recovers and redeems the souls permitting for hints of hope.
“We have now had the privilege of dwelling right here on this extraordinary island for a decade now, and yearly our delight on this mission will increase,” acknowledged Marchesi Frescobaldi President, Lamberto Frescobaldi. “As did the earlier vintages, tenth conveys the island’s one-of-a-kind terroir. Surrounded by its scents and tastes, right here in Gorgona there may be something one might want for: love for this island, man’s loving consideration, hope for a greater life, the affect of the ocean, and this extraordinary surroundings, all parts that mix leading to a wine that’s inimitable, innately unique, an emblem of hope and freedom. It’s the very essence of this unparalleled nook of the planet and of our mission, an emblem that by no means stops to fill us with pleasure.”
Annually, the Gorgona label is conceived as a “vintage-dedicated” publication that communicates a unique side of the island. Setting foot in Gorgona means discovering its totally distinctive biodiversity, its dense Mediterranean land, and pristine sea. Furthermore, placing fortifications and a small church devoted to San Gorgonio, constructed by Carthusian monks within the 18th-century, witness the Island’s wealthy cultural previous.
The Gorgona 2021 label celebrates the individuals who made this extraordinary mission attainable. It extends gratitude to the Establishment’s administrators and to the civil authorities, to the police and educators, to the mission companions and supporters, to the prisoners themselves and to the winemakers. A particular thanks goes to those that have shared the story of this mission, and which have made this small but lovely island a spot the place many individuals gathered collectively for an honourable trigger. The label additionally includes a description of the wine, the results of the wedding between man’s labour and the qualities of an unmatched locus.
The 2021 version moreover describes the tenth harvest, in addition to providing tribute to the land, being the smallest out of seven islands that represent the Tuscan archipelago. When coming to this solitary facet of the world, one instantly feels intertwined and linked with nature and the island’s robust emotions.
In concord with nature and the island’s floor, one rediscovers dignity and hope for the longer term. People with very completely different tales, backgrounds, and experiences, right here lastly communicate the identical language becoming a member of forces and abilities for a better scope, a legitimate and honest social mission that’s right here for good.
Gorgona is the fruit of a 2-hectare winery planted on east-facing, wind protected, iron-rich soils. The winery, initially planted in 1999, then renewed and enlarged in 2015 and 2018, is solely rising Ansonica and Vermentino grapes, the one suppliers to the soul of this unparalleled wine, essence of the island terroir.
Autumn and winter introduced regular seasonal temperatures and plentiful rainfall, particularly in November, recharging groundwater reserves. Budbreak began within the final week of March, barely early, as it’s the norm on the island. Abrupt drops in temperature in early April have been tempered by the maritime surroundings, and vine progress proceeded unimpeded. Persistent rains in Might and barely below-average temperatures in June and July enabled the vines to deal with torrid warmth in mid-August, permitting for wonderful circumstances on the time of harvest. The primary Vermentino got here in on the finish of the primary week of September, which loved perfect diurnal vary, whereas Ansonica was picked beginning the ultimate week of the month.
Gorgona 2021 as soon as once more is an eloquent expression of its surrounding seas, heat solar, crisp, fixed breezes, and the briny breath of the maritime surroundings.
Its shimmering straw yellow, flecked with vivid gold, can not fail to thrill the attention. A beneficiant bouquet is harking back to Mediterranean scrub, broom, lentisk, and wild herbs that meld into hawthorn blossom, chamomile, and freesia; likewise fantastically blended into the general advanced are notes of banana, pineapple, and tropical fruit normally. This fragrant cornucopia concludes on crisp, citrusy notes of grapefruit and citron. An impressively tangy sapidity marks the palate, complementing its vibrant acidity and velvety texture.
Just like the earlier vintages, these nuances show a powerful bond with the encompassing sea, and for the tenth 12 months in a row, it leads us to dream of, and love much more, this tiny island within the in depth Mediterranean sea.
Gorgona, a white wine of Vermentino e Ansonica, is organically grown and has a restricted manufacturing of simply 9,000 bottles.
In simply seven years, it has conquered worldwide markets, from New York to Tokyo, and, extra importantly, the hearts of those that have been lucky sufficient to style it.
THE VISION
“Frescobaldi for the Social Good” started in August 2012. Earlier than foraying into wine manufacturing, it was a multi-year mission involving collaboration with the authorities of the penal colony, whose goal was to get the inmates concerned in sensible viticultural work. Underneath the supervision of Frescobaldi agronomists and winemakers, the inmates restored and cultivated a one-hectare winery on the island, to which over time Frescobaldi added one other 1.3 hectares of vines.
THE PROJECT
The Gorgona mission was launched in August 2012, fruit of a collaboration between Frescobaldi and Gorgona, Europe’s solely remaining island-penitentiary. The inmates spend the ultimate interval of their detention right here, working and dwelling in touch with nature, creating for themselves an expert technique of re-joining the workforce and the group at massive. The mission took root in a small winery mendacity within the coronary heart of an amphitheatre excessive over the ocean; its objective was to allow the inmates to achieve private, hands-on, skilled expertise within the discipline of viticulture. Underneath the supervision of Frescobaldi agronomists and winemakers, a number of rows of organically-grown Sangiovese and Vermentino Nero yielded Gorgona Rosso, with the 2015 classic, which matured in massive terracotta jars. With extra plantings in 2015, that winery has grown at present to nearly two and a half hectares of Vermentino and Ansonica, which now produce Gorgona, the proper expression of the individuality of this nook of earth and the work of man, and eloquent image of hope and freedom.
STAGES OF THE PROJECT
In Might 2013, the primary classic of Gorgona (2012) was submitted to the authorities in Rome, and in September Lamberto Frescobaldi offered magnum quantity 0 to Giorgio Napolitano, President of Italy.
In June 2014, Frescobaldi signed a 15-year contract for collaboration with the administration of the penal colony, and the vineyard employed and paid two inmates to work within the Gorgona winery.
In February 2015, underneath supervision by Frescobaldi winemakers, inmates planted one other hectare of Vermentino, to contain extra inmates within the viticultural work and to acquire, in one other 4 years, a better-quality wine. The overall hectares thus rose to 2.3.
In June 2018, the sixth classic of Gorgona was bottled, 2017, in an version of 9,000 bottles. The bottle label centered on the island fauna, which was completely tailored to the island’s biodiversity: wild rabbits, peregrine falcons, and seagulls, who selected Gorgona as their nesting place.
PARTNERS
Andrea Bocelli created the textual content and signed the bottle label of the 2013 classic.
“The Tuscan Archipelago is an earthly paradise, with the isle of Gorgona being its pearl of Aphrodite, wild and luminescent. Outwardly, it might appear forbidding, however its fragrances and silences are inexpressibly seductive, and nature right here irresistibly overcomes with its drive and everlasting fecundity… Throughout are water and salt, messengers of the heavens, anchors of sail-ropes.” (A. Bocelli – 2014)
Simonetta Doni, with Studio Doni & Associati, one of many only a few worldwide wine-label design businesses, donates her skills yearly for the label graphics. Along with a highly-qualified workforce of specialists in tradition and artwork, she graphically interprets the traits that make the mission and its island so distinctive.
Giorgio Pinchiorri, proprietor of Enoteca Pinchiorri, one of the well-known Italian eating places world-wide, participates within the mission by utilising his distinctive delicacies to advertise appreciation of Gorgona’s custom of meals and wine.
Argotractors, a part of the Gruppo Argo, was based in 2007 to create a world-class tractor enterprise; it donated a winery tractor to be used on the island.
MARCHESI FRESCOBALDI
The Frescobaldi household, which has been making awarded, ultra-premium wines in Tuscany for over 700 years, is one in all Italy’s main wine producers. It passionately combines custom with innovation and firmly believes in respect for its rising areas and in rising ever higher-quality grapes in its vineyards. It’s world-wide recognised for the wines from its estates–Tenuta Castiglioni, Tenuta CastelGiocondo, Tenuta Perano, Castello Nipozzano, Castello Pomino, Tenuta Ammiraglia, Rémole, and Gorgona.
