Julian Alaphilippe and Anna Van Der Breggen, cycling champions, bewitched by Montalcino

Julian Alaphilippe is French, and Anna Van Der Breggen is Dutch, but they will carry Italy in their hearts. Because in Imola, at the World Road Cycling Championships, in the last few days, they both qualified as world champions. A world title that, for both of them, also has the scent of great Italian wine, and Brunello di Montalcino in particular. Anna Van der Breggen, in particular, who, in Imola, has twice become champion, winning both the line and time trial (and who also boasts another world gold medal, one Olympic and three European), is a regular of Pieve a Salti, a beautiful village that takes its name from the ancient Pieve Santa Maria in Salti, a baptismal church of the sixth century, and now a farm and agriturismo that has 700 hectares of land all organic, dedicated mainly to the production of legumes and cereals. “Like the spelt, with which we make our soup, of which she is greedy and never fails to eat - tells, to WineNews, Gian Paolo Sandrinelli - but Anna is in love with the whole village and its renovated ancient buildings, and the whole territory. She had already been here, this year, for the Strade Bianche, and she was also here two weeks ago to prepare the women’s Giro d’Italia, she made the team come back from Spain even earlier, to be here a few more days. She is really in love with Pieve a Salti and the territory, which she often tells through her social media. We also had a sip of Brunello together, which she appreciated very much”.
Even Julian Alaphilippe appreciated the Brunello di Montalcino, and in particular the limited edition Anniversario 2008 Magnum of the Mastrojanni winery of the Illy group, which he visited in recent weeks, as Andrea Machetti tells us: “he has been here and has fallen in love with the place and the feeling of relaxation and tranquility that it gives, and he has already said he wants to return. He was in preparation for the Strade Bianche and the Milano San Remo, so he did not drink wine. We gave him the magnum saying that he would uncork it to toast a great success, and yesterday after his triumph I wrote to him saying that it was the right time to uncork, and he agreed”.
And who knows, maybe, Alaphilippe might have toasted together with his colleague-rival Wout Van Aert, second at the Imola World Cup, and instead triumphant at the last Strade Bianche, which also touched Montalcino, land of Brunello, and then the Milano – Sanremo. “At Strade Bianche we celebrated opening several bottles of Brunello di Montalcino, after the Milano-Sanremo we toasted with Barbaresco”, Van Aert confessed to Euronews. With the great of the world cycling who discover themselves as the ambassador of the great territories of Italian wine, with Montalcino and its Brunello in the lead.