THE FIRST BOTTLES OF “ROCCA DI FRASSINELLO” NOW ON THE MARKET: THE WINE PROJECT OF PUBLISHER PAOLO PANERAI AND ERIC DE ROTHSCHILD. FIRST WINE COMPANY OF EQUAL FRENCH-ITALIAN PARTNERSHIP

With the first bottles of “Rocca di Frassinello” now in commerce, the initial operative phase of the wine project created and shared by Paolo Panerai (managing director of Class Publishers, which publishes Mf/Milan Finanza and Italia oggi, Class, Luna, Case & Country and the digital television channel Financial Network, associated with Cnbc, and also the owner of Castellare di Castellina), and Eric de Rothschild who within the grand family of financiers has the responsibility of managing all wine activities, primarily Château Lafite. And this is the first example of a successful co-partnership in wine entrepreneurship between France and Italy. The company is located on the hills facing the small village of Giuncarico, on the right side of the Aurelia highway, extending over about 500 hectares (that were acquired in 1999), of which about 80 hectares are cultivated vineyards, destined to become at least 125 hectares when the program is completed.
The choice to work in this territory, a prime wine cultivating area in the Maremma that has attracted other great producers like Ezio Rivella and Gianni Zonin, was determined by the considerably lower prices than in the Bolgheri area (because wine and winemaking isn’t just an extraordinary human adventure but also, if not above all, a business of land, or rather, property expressed by land). To complete this ambitious project, the prestigious firm run by Renzo Piano created the designs for the wine cellar in construction, and which ideally will constitute the starting point for a sort of “tour” through the wineries of such important names as Petra at Suvereto, by Mario Botta, and in Bolgheri with the wineries of Angelo Gaja by Giovanni Bo, as well as those of Lodovico Antinori at Campo di Sasso, near Bibbona, by Gae Aulenti.
As for the technological front, the direction has been entrusted to another French-Italian pair: Alessandro Cellai, enologist and director of Castellare di Castellina, and Christian Le Sommer, enologist for Domaines Barons de Rothschild. Following the French model, the entire array of wines has been articulated, all obtained by Sangiovese, Merlot, and Cabernet grapes at different percentages: Poggio alla Guardia 2004, the third level wine, is refined only in steel containers, does not carry the name of the company on its label, and has been in commerce since June with a current production of 17,000 bottles, eventually becoming 100,000 when running at full capacity; the second label, Sughere di Frassinello 2004, is aged 50% in new oak barrels, has only a part of the name of the company (a sort of equivalent to Carruades de Lafite), and will be in commerce starting in September with a production of 60,000 bottles, eventually reaching 130,000; the top label, Rocca di Frassinello 2004, is aged completely in new oak barrels, and the grand wine will enter into commerce at the end of 2006 with 45,000 bottles, and with ultimately 100,000 upon completion of the project. The total cost of this investment by Paolo Panerai and Eric de Rothschild is estimated to be about 20 million euros.