Italy’s centuries-old companies met and toasted together at Villa Travignoli, in Chianti Rufina

On September 16th, the Unione Imprese Centenarie Italiane (www.uicitalia.org) brought together 46 companies to meet, starting at 11 am, in Pelago, at the Travignoli Agricultural Company, in the heart of Rufina, now led by Giovanni Busi (who is also president of the Chianti Wine Consortium, ed. ). Just to name a few of these historic companies, beginning with the wine companies, Antinori, Apollonio, Carpenè Malvolti, D’Alfonso del Sordo, Cecchi, Coppola, Leone de Castris, Mazzei, Barone Ricasoli, as well as companies such as Marinella Ties of Naples, Banca Sella, Biscottificio Mattei of Prato, Villani cured meats of Castelnuovo Rangone in Modena and Mazzetti D’Altavilla distillery in Altavilla Monferrato. The Travignoli Estate boasts 90 hectares of land, 70 of which are vineyards and the rest olive groves, and has just recently celebrated 550 years of company history with its roots going back as far as the 6th century BC (thanks to the discovery of an Etruscan stele depicting a lavish banquet with overflowing vases of wine), and a certified document dated 1473 that cites Travignoli as a “lord’s house”, comprised of three farms, bequeathed by Aloisia Lotti to the Santa Maria Nuova Florentine Hospital. The epic 550th anniversary was celebrated with a tasting of more recent vintages, such as 2021 as well as older ones, such as 1972 or 1983 (the historical archive of the wine cellar, however, starts from 1934, ed.), in which the Councilor for Agriculture and Vice President of the Tuscany Region, Stefania Saccardi, also took part. The wines showed a unique vitality over the decades and a marked salinity and acidity, distinctive traits of a small piece of land that is the history of Chianti - Rufina - where there are, in addition to Travignoli, other leading companies such as Castello di Nipozzano di Frescobaldi, Selvapiana, Marchesi Gondi - Tenuta Bossi, Castello del Trebbio, and more.
“This anniversary celebration is an achievement that fills us with pride, as wine has been our passion for centuries. We have put it in every single bottle we produce, and the success and longevity of the company demonstrate that we have managed to share it”, Giovanni Busi, at the helm of Villa Travignoli, with his son Clemente Busi, stated. “Our long history gives us the incentive to look forward, to improve the quality of our production”, Giovanni Busi commented, “in the last seven years we have replanted 27 hectares of new vineyards, especially Sangiovese, to continue to raise the level of excellence of our wines. The objective for the future is to enhance productions by making them known to an even wider audience, focusing on quality”.
During the meeting of the more than one-hundred-year-old companies, Giancarlo Landini, president of the Santa Maria Nuova Foundation, retraced the history of the Pelago winery, owned by the Busi family since the nineteenth century. In 1924, at the first International Exhibition in Rome, Count Clemente Busi received the Grand Prize and Gold Medal for the excellent production of Chianti wine, while in 1927 Clemente Busi was one of the founders of the Chianti Putto Consortium. “It is a great pleasure for us to host this meeting in the name of over a century of entrepreneurial longevity because we firmly believe that promoting and passing on the values of centuries-old companies is now, more than ever, a fundamental act of social responsibility, towards the new generations as well”, Giovanni Busi said. The program also included the presentation of the study entitled, “Centennial companies and future-proof values”, conducted by Claudio Baccarani (Professor Emeritus at the University of Verona), together with Chiara Rossato and Paola Castellani (Economics researchers and Business Management, Department of Management at the same University). Representatives of some of the most prestigious Made in Italy centuries-old brands participated, such as Amarelli Liquirizia (liquorice) 1731, Fiore 1827, Aceto (vinegar) Del Duca 1891, Villani 1886, Busatti 1842 and Giusto Manetti Battiloro 1820.