Even in Calabria, wine helps art: Ippolito 1845 winery launches “Taste the Art”

A corporate social responsibility project that combines wine, art and territory: “Taste the Art” is an idea of the historic Ippolito 1845 winery, the oldest in Calabria - more than 100 hectares in the Cirò Marina area - born from the meeting with Enrico Focarelli Barone, in art Frelly, a young and promising artist from Calabria.
It is precisely his illustrations that have become the labels for a line of six limited-edition bottles of the winery’s most iconic wines, enclosed in an elegant and unprecedented wooden case. Proceeds from the sales will help raise funds to support the restoration of artistic and historical works in the Calabrian territory. A form of social sustainability through the return of a portion of profits to the community in which the winery has operated and worked for more than 170 years.
Frelly’s labels have reinterpreted the winery’s wines in new and original ways through refined illustrations in which past and future merge in a creative, lighthearted and surreal vision. Ippolito 1845’s corporate mission has always been the recovery and enhancement of native grape varieties such as Gaglioppo, Greco Bianco, Calabrese, Pecorello and Greco Nero. Through constant research, the use of innovative techniques, and direct control of all production processes, the company seeks elegance, exclusivity and identity with its territory in its wines.
In the presentation, the artistic work being restored was disclosed: “we have received consent from the municipality to be able to proceed with the restoration of a historical work located in Cirò Marina. The work is the Fountain of the Prince, which belonged to the Spinelli princes, a monumental fountain with 3 arches, now abandoned and in a complete state of decay”, reveals Vincenzo Ippolito. “We want to create around this fountain a green oasis open to the public, but above all we want to give a strong signal, to show that the synergy between public and private can and must change the mentality of the territory and that this change will lead to benefits not only economic but above all social and cultural”.