A bottle of wine for Italian masterpieces: Caparzo and Civita for the restoration of artworks

Wine to save the Italian art masterpieces. The idea came from the Civita Association, a non-profit organization founded in 1987, and the Caparzo di Montalcino Estate. By purchasing the wines of the special Civitas line signed by Caparzo - that is, a bottle of Brunello, a bottle of Sangiovese and a bottle of Bianco TGI, contained in collector boxes - you become a sponsor of projects aimed at restoring small, but prestigious pieces of our immense artistic heritage. Elisabetta Gnudi Angelini, at the helm of Caparzo, has become the interpreter of an evolved form of contemporary patronage. “I have always had a great passion for art, history and archeology”, explained the entrepreneur, one of the great ladies of Brunello di Montalcino; she owns, together with Caparzo and Altesino, over 150 hectares of vineyards in Montalcino, of which 62 Brunello and 25 Rosso, and Borgo Scopeto, in Chianti Classico, “and this is also the reason I got involved in this exciting project drawn up by the late Gianfranco Imperatori. The Civita Association (which today is chaired by Gianni Letta) was founded in the late 1980s because of a personal battle of his. He wanted to save Civita di Bagnoregio, a truly unique place, at any cost, which at that time was slowly dying. He succeeded in his objective by creating a consortium of large private companies that financed the recovery of the village, contributing millions of euros, building the bridge and making sure that Civita would become what it is now”. Later on, the association expanded its range of action to include other objectives, linked, of course, to the Italian artistic and cultural heritage. “For example, we had realized”, explained Gnudi Angelini, “that in Italy there were some very outstanding museums that had been closed for twenty or thirty years, such as the one in Capodimonte or the Roman Civilization Museum in Rome, which houses very important finds. So, Civita, also thanks to the support of a far-sighted politician like Antonio Maccanico, spent its time reopening and managing them”.
Tenuta Caparzo became involved in the activity of Civita in 2005, by creating a line of special bottles of wine. “Every year, the proceeds from the sale of these wines, which amounts to about 20-30.000 euros, are distributed to specific projects, whose accounts I personally verify”, added Elisabetta Gnudi Angelini. The Civitas wine labels illustrate the details of some Etruscan artworks, that become collectible bottles and are then a sort of virtuous “reminder” of the reasons for which they were created. “I have great admiration for the Etruscan civilization”, concluded Gnudi Angelini, “because it was incredibly highly evolved, particularly regarding the role of women in society”.
Over the years, the Civitas wines have contributed to the recovery of prestigious works of art: the frescoes in the church of San Francesco in Amatrice; “The Madonna and Child” by Gentile da Fabriano; “The deposition of Christ in the sepulcher”, which belongs to the Sienna School of the seventeenth century; “La Madonna delle Grazie and Santi” by Perugino, and the 23 exquisite Etruscan funerary urns from the Hellenistic period. The most recent restoration in order of time, supported by the proceeds of Vino Civitas is the Rococo consoles of the Corsini Gallery in Rome, commissioned by Cardinal Neri Maria Corsini and his brother Bartolomeo.
Caparzo and Civita are yet another excellent example of the modern patronage that several of the biggest names in Italian wine have been organizing for years, to preserve and bring to life the many treasures of Italian culture and art.