Brunello di Montalcino

At first there was the Brunello di Montalcino. I found in the best restaurants the Brunello di Montalcino Mastrojanni and consumed often. In 1983 I came to Montalcino for the first time and I bought the Brunello di Montalcino wine in different place. In 1987 I visited Sandro Chia: he also producer of Brunello di Montalcino. And I met Carlo Vittori made into wine, Brunello di Montalcino by Sandro. So I'm in love with Charles Montalcino and began to look for me on a farm with the rights of Brunello di Montalcino to make me as producer of Brunello di Montalcino. It took ten years because we found Podere Le Ripi, 54 hectares of land with only one recorded in the Brunello di Montalcino. Wolf & Sirens was born in 2003, my first Brunello di Montalcino produced at Podere Le Ripi. And in 2008, confining Podere Le Ripi with Mastrojanni, after a long friendship with Andrea Machetti, former producer of Brunello di Montalcino and responsible Mastrojanni, we purchased with the Illy Group SpA (the holding company of us brothers Illy) the Mastrojanni which is now one of the best known brands of Brunello di Montalcino.

Brunello di Montalcino

Today, the Brunello di Montalcino Back of Donkey Mastrojanni often gets 94 points WAS and Parker and Brunello di Montalcino Wolves & Sirens Podere Le Ripi obtained with 2004 Weinwisser of 19,5 / 20, an exceptional result for an exceptional wine as Brunello di Montalcino. This ten-year adventure in Montalcino and in particular with the Brunello di Montalcino was the most beautiful of my life and continues: we are building a new cellar for Brunello di Montalcino, Podere Le Ripi that would become the cathedral of wine, with lots of pulpit to preach to Brunello di Montalcino and refined in our oak barrels. But we are also pursuing the project of Bonsai wine or the vineyard Brunello di Montalcino densest in the world. With 62,500 plants per hectare this Brunello di Montalcino comes from vines with deep roots that produce more than 2 meters per plant on average, a cluster: a new innovation in the world of fine wine that was born right here at Podere Le Ripi, in the town of Montalcino under the specification of Brunello di Montalcino. Today, the Brunello di Montalcino wine, Podere Le Ripi is a very rare because they produce very little and with the concept Bonsai wine become, I hope, the Brunello di Montalcino's most wanted in the world. Francesco Illy Winemaker in Montalcino Producer of Brunello di Montalcino At Podere Le Ripi, Montalcino
 
 
My Bonsai Future

After five years of experience I could say yes, the Bonsai works, and it works very well.

I see how much labor is absorbed by this vineyard and what enormous costs are necessary to plant it but on the other side, if the quality of the grapes is much better, the ripening is more contemporaneous (we never harvested the Bonsai twice) and the quantity is more than double… well… it looks like we should make all the vineyards Bonsai!
The other argument is our belief, or, if one prefers, my challenge: this adventure must be able to create lots of jobs in a wonderful environment, which will lead to better wines that has to be sold for higher prices. Either we are able to make it, communicate it and sell our wines… or… well… it’s more or less the same challenge as the Bonsai itself, isn’it?

So in 2010 we begun to drill the hole where the new cellar will be build and used this earth to prepare a field for the Bonsai enlargement to one full hectare. The video "My Bonsai" shows this work.

Last year we did not reach the full hectare, but this year we will, and so, if the disciplinary of Brunello di Montalcino will allow this planting density (which we do not know yet) from the vintage 2016 all the Brunello of Podere Le Ripi will come from our Bonsai vineyards!