HISTORY FASCINATES WINE LOVERS IN THE USA AND ALL OVER THE WORLD, SO NOBILE DI MONTEPULCIANO AND VERNACCIA DI SAN GIMIGNANO GOT TOGETHER TO TELL THEIR STORIES

The way to win the hearts of wine lovers, even before quality, is of course through the charm of a glass of wine, but also by telling them about the rich and ancient past that developed the unique qualities of wine. This is the road that the Consortium of San Gimignano, in the name of Vernaccia and the Consorzio del Vino Nobile di Montepulciano will travel together to safeguard two wines of two of the most famous towns in Tuscany. The CMO project that is considered one of the best in the Tuscany Region will start in 2015 from the United States and aims to captivate fans with the history of the two wines together under the banner of a very important heritage. Both wines were loved by Pope Farnese III, who in 1545 summoned the Council of Trent: "the wine of Montepulciano is truly perfect in the winter, and in the summer... and His Holiness willingly drinks it", noted the Pope’s sommelier Sante Lancerio in the manuscript, "Of the quality of wines" about the famous red wine. About the antique white wine he wrote, "in the year that Rome crowned His Holiness and that was in the year 1536, in the evening he lodged in Poggibonsi, where there were great wines from San Gimignano (...) also very good grapes, and His Holiness drank this wine with gusto and gave high honors to the place". This is just one example among many. We have the first evidence of Vernaccia wine abound the end of 1200: French poets such as Jeofrois de Wateford and Servais Copal wrote, "Of all wines this is the non plus ultra".

In the 1300's, Vernaccia is mentioned in Dante's Divine Comedy, in the works of Boccaccio and Cecco Angiolieri, as well as in those of other French and English writers such as Eustache Deschamps, considered the father of the "ballad" or Geoffrey Chaucer, author of "The Canterbury Tales". The great Tuscan white wine has been, over the centuries, protagonist on the tables of great Italian families and nobles, from the Medici to the Visconti and Aragon, King of Naples. And, of course, we must mention the Vasari painting in the Cinquecento (1500) hall in Palazzo Vecchio in Florence "Allegory of San Gimignano and Colle Val d'Elsa" of a satyr drinking Vernaccia. We cannot forget Francesco Redi, who in "Bacco in Toscana" wrote: "If there is anyone who does not like / La Vernaccia / harvested in Pietrafitta / interdict / accursed, / flee out of my sight". Redi also wrote about the Tuscan red wine: "Montepulciano is king of all wines". It it is not surprising, then, that Montepulciano wine was around in the Etruscan era (traces were found in the works of Livy, 2.000 years ago). The importance of the town of Poliziano in the history of wine is also evidenced by the bottle "pulcianella", one of the most popular formats in wine trading between 1300 and 1500, which owes its name to the territory of Nobile di Montepulciano.

In more recent times, the wine of Montepulciano has been quoted by Voltaire, one of the noble fathers of Enlightenment, in "Candide, or Optimism", and "Le guide d'Italie" in 1775, where one reads about the "town famous for its good wines that have sweetness and strength, and often even the French like them". The word "Nobile" is documented for the first time, in 1787 on a shopping list attributed to Giovanni Filippo Neri, governor of the Regio Ritiro di San Girolamo. These are just a few examples of two ancient stories that are in some ways parallel, and that not many wines in the world can boast, and now shall meet again in a project that looks to the future.

"We felt it was important to collaborate with Montepulciano”, said the coordinator of Consorzio Vini San Gimignano, Stefano Campatelli, “because together we will present a stronger and better team. We decided that the theme to unite our two wines would be history as both territories have a past of grandeur that is well documented and celebrated. Today, everyone is talking about territory, but we needed something more to stand out and that is why we decided to focus on something truly unique on the United States market, because the Americans, as we all know, are among the most sensitive to the charm of Italian history.
"This project”, explained Paolo Solini, coordinator of the Consortium of Nobile di Montepulciano, “lets us continue collaborating as we have had in the past with for example, Brunello di Montalcino, Chianti Classico and also Prosecco. We have focused on history because there is so much to tell as the many documents evidence as well as the excavations already completed and being completed for the Fortezza di Montepulciano". The project also includes presentation of wines, wine tasting, wine events, and so on. But, it will have an extra flavor: that of centuries and centuries of wine history.