AMERICANS MORE BEWITCHED THAN EVER BY “ITALIAN WINE STYLE”. THE CULT AMERICAN MAGAZINE, WINE ENTHUSIAST, HAS ELECTED CARLO FERRINI AS THE “ENOLOGIST OF THE YEAR” AND “LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT” GOES TO JOHN MARIANI, THE FOUNDER OF CASTELLO BANFI

The United States continues to be under the spell of “Italian Wine Style”, a success that not only includes wine but also those who make it.
For the 2007 edition of the prestigious Wine Enthusiast magazine’s “Wine Star Awards”, Carlo Ferrini has taken the “Winemaker of the Year” award and John Mariani (founder of Castello Banfi in Montalcino) claimed the “Lifetime Achievement” award. This is an undisputed verdict by one of the most popular critical wine magazines in the world.

The Florentine enologist Carlo Ferrini has a decidedly natural talent for winemaking. After graduating from the University of Florence in 1978 with a degree in agriculture, he immediately began his professional career at the Chianti Classico Consortium, where he was to remain for over ten years, contributing largely to the guidelines for the “Chianti Classico 2000” project, or the task of revealing all of the hidden secrets of the top Tuscan grape variety, Sangiovese. An academic for Vine and Wine in 1991, Ferrini would begin his consulting career the following year, which would ultimately see him become one of the most important and esteemed enologists in Italy. In 2000, Ferrini was elected enologist of the year by Gambero Rosso/Slow Food and in 2003 received the same award from the top Italian sommelier association, AIS.
These days, he is enological consultant for some of the most important Italian winemakers: from Tuscan Barone Ricasoli, Brancaia, Castello di Fonterutoli, Fattoria Le Corti, Fattoria Nittardi, Poggio Bonelli (Mps Group), Fattoria di Petrolo, Poggio Verrano, Castello del Terriccio, Sapaio, Poliziano, Talenti, Castello Romitorio, and Casanova di Neri (whose Brunello di Montalcino Tenuta Nuova 2001 won best wine in the world from the other cult wine magazine, Wine Spectator), to Valle Reale in Abruzzo, the Sicilian Tasca d'Almerita and Donnafugata, and San Leonardo dei Marchesi Guerrieri Gonzaga from the Trentino region.

And John Mariani’s lifetime achievement award was recognition of his sui generis role in the world of wine. U.S. citizen by birth, but with Italian descent, Mariani and his brother Harry, developed a wine importing activity in the 1950’s that would become one of the most important in the U.S. for Bordeaux and Bourgogne in the 1960’s. In 1969, John created a by-the-books marketing success with the launch in the U.S. of Lambrusco by the Riunite winery.
This success would make him the most important Italian wine importer in the U.S., a title he would hold for the next 26 years. In the mid 1970’s, Mariani would become wine producer himself, founding Castello Banfi in Montalcino, thus contributing in a fundamental way to the world wide success of Brunello. A man of strategic, almost prophetic vision, regardless of his advanced age, he continues to be a point of reference for the marketing of more innovative winemaking methods.



The Other “Wine Star Awards” for 2007:

Persons of the Year: Ray Chadwick, Diageo Chateau & Estate Wines

American Winery of the Year: DFV Wines (Delicato Family Vineyards)

European Winery of the Year: Symington Family Estates, Portugal

New World Winery of the Year: Villa Maria, New Zealand

Importer of the Year: E & J Gallo

Distiller of the Year: Casa Herradura, Brown-Forman

Retailer of the Year: Whole Foods Market

Winemaking Region of the Year: Rioja, Spain

The award ceremony will take place on January 28, 2008 during the Gala Dinner at the New York Public Library.