. Introduction to Feudi del Pisciotto

. Local Authority for Sicilian Cultural Heritage

. Mint Exhibition

Taking on the role of challenger requires ambition and a thorough understanding of the task in hand.
The challenge of Baffonero, the 100% Merlot from Rocca di Frassinello in the Tuscan Maremma, is to sportingly compete with Masseto, who with Ornellaia, have produced a wine which has achieved a 100/100 rating from
Wine Spectator and become the first Italian wine marketed in France in the same way as a Premier Grand Cru Classé.
Confidence in the ability to rise to this ambitious challenge lies in an excellent terroir, a winery without equal and exceptional wine-making.

Just the name Baffonero conjures an image of the Grosseto Maremma, a region that is at once harsh, inspiring and captivating.
In fact, the name Baffonero (black moustache) is the nickname given to the master of the hunt, the meeting point for the days boar hunt being the Merlot vineyard and it is from this that the wine takes it’s name.

In the spectacular barrique cellar designed by Renzo Piano Baffonero 2007, the first vintage, is brought to its extraordinary level of quality thanks to the exacting attentions brought to every step of the production by oenologist Alessandro Cellai.
Each vine, every cluster of grapes and each grape itself is punctually selected, every phase of the wine-making scrupulously controlled.

From 6th January 2007, after critical acclaim (92/100 from Wine Spectator, Three Goblets from Gambero Rosso, the Sun award from Veronelli), Baffonero was made available. The first year 4000 bottles were produced (no special formats).
Packed in wooden cases of three tissue-wrapped bottles, inside there is an elegantly designed booklet on the history of Baffonero.
The challenge is on.

(try to read this code)

Useful links:

. Poggio alla Guardia profile

. QRcode video factsheet for iPhone

. About QRcode

. Create your QRcode

You are having dinner in a restaurant with friends. You are served a new wine, but perhaps the sommelier doesn’t have a lot of time to dedicate to you.
Look at the label on the back of the bottle: at the bottom of the label there is a barcode, but also a QRCode. If you have a high-band mobile phone with an internet connection at your disposal you have no need of the sommelier, because the wine can be described to you by the very person who made it: the oenologist.

Baffonero and Poggio alla Guardia by Rocca di Frassinello are the first two wines in the world that can offer this special service. You can view a short video, where the oenologist Alessandro Cellai will reveal to you the secrets of these two great wines in detail, these being the entry level and the flagship label of Rocca di Frassinello.

To use the QRCode:
iPhone, Blackberry and all high-band mobile phones (Nokia, etc..) with an internet connection make it possible to access this code. iPhone and Blackberry are the most simple. Blackberry contains the software for accessing QRCode within its messenger system for connecting to other Blackberry’s
For iPhone and all other types of smartphone there are various applications for reading QRCode (iNigma is one of them).
Good viewing and good tasting!

Useful links:

. Italian Fashion Top Designers Collection

. Passito dei Feudi del Pisciotto factsheet

If the latter of these vines is most typical of the Bordeaux region, notwithstanding the fact that it is known across the globe, Gewurztraminer represents a surprising choice for a Sicilian vineyard. Its habitat is normally associated with colder climates and certainly not with those as hot as Sicily’s. As a grape of minimal acid content with plenty of sugar, it produces a wine low in acidity, high in alcohol and with a pleasing smoothness thanks to its strong aromatic qualities (gewurz means spicy in German), full of intense flavour and fragrance.

The meeting of these two vines in Sicily to create Passito dei Feudi del Pisciotto, have produced a masterpiece of exuberance and balance, in which the intensely aromatic notes of Gewurztraminer combine perfectly with the excellent structure of Semeillon: all sustained by a perfect acidity. The label by Gianfranco Ferrè, designed for the Italian Fashion Top Designers Collection, is the crowning glory of this most original Passito, just waiting to be discovered. The drawing on the label is in fact an unpublished original by the late designer.

Useful links:

I Sodi di San Niccolò factsheet

The scientific name for the woodcock is Scolopox rusticola, the name given by the Swedish naturalist Carl Von Linnè in 1758. The word ‘skolops’ meaning ‘pointed peg’, refers to the birds long beak; ‘rusticola’ to its forest habitat.
The woodcock is also known as the ‘whitethroat’ or ‘queen of the forest’, in tribute to its beauty, even lending its name to a French region, il Domaine de la Mordorée.

This wonderful bird has been chosen to celebrate 25 harvests of I Sodi di San Niccolò. Twenty-five years in which a perfect union of Sangioveto (85%) and Malvasia nera (15%) have made this Castellare di Castellina label the Tuscan wine from native vines awarded the highest points by the wine bible, Wine Spectator (as high as 99/100 from Flaccianello), twice achieving the top 100 and ranking at fifth place in the world.

To celebrate the silver wedding of Sangioveto and Malvasia nera, I Sodi di San Niccolò will wear an exclusive gown, a bottle decorated with the image of an elegant silver woodcock by the famous silversmith Miracoli di Milano. This limited edition work of art clothes the 100 numbered bottles from the 2005 vintage.

Useful links:

. L'architetto in cantina (from Espresso.it)

. Renzo Piano Building Workshop

. Rai Uno Linea Verde

. Video gallery for Castellare.it

In its first show of the year, Linea Verde, the time-honoured television program by Rai Uno which has for the last fifty years kept Italians informed about the world of agriculture, included a report on Rocca di Frassinello. Through a series of images of the 2009 harvest, the surrounding landscape and the building itself, designed by Renzo Piano, Linea Verde revealed the excellence of the winery and its products.

Framed by the hills of the Grosseto Maremma, a perfect synthesis of form and substance has been realised in the careful work of the men and women of Rocca di Frassinello. The exceptional care and technical skill taken in the vineyards, the respect for the earth (with the decision to reduce the use of chemical products), the astute selection of seeds, are all followed by similarly painstaking handling of the grapes, which enter the gravity-fed vats without resorting to the use of pumps.

Form and substance are represented here in the genius of Renzo Piano, who has designed the winery as a factory, as opposed to a monument, elegant and harmonious in its simplicity. It is the barricaia (barrique cellar) itself , the heart of the winery, which symbolizes the essence and the personal nature of Piano’s design for Rocca di Frassinello. ‘A Unique Space’, by Linea Verde can be found in the video gallery at www.castellare.it

Mivida Cafè -Wine Bar, Restaurant (Cremona)
This restaurant offers a creative cuisine specializing in fish brought directly from France and, in the winter season, special cuts of Florentine steak with white truffle.The wine cellar has over 700 labels representing the best known wines of Italy and France.
On 15th December 2009 the restaurant played host to a well-attended tasting of fish dishes prepared by the masterly chef and paired with Champagne from the Dampierre line, distributed in Italy by Domini di Castellare di Castellina and associates.

. MiVidaCafè
. Comte Audoin de Dampierre

Turandot - Restaurant (Moscow)
Taking its name from the ice princess of the celebrated Puccini opera, Turandot is the most exclusive and spectacular restaurant in Moscow, if not the whole of Russia. The opulence of the decoration is only enhanced by the refinement of the cuisine which has been enjoyed by the worlds most illustrious guests, including Gorbacev.
On 2nd December 2009, Turandot was the scene for a presentation of the wines of Castellare. A sumptuous tasting was organized and co-ordinated by the CastellareImporters AST in collaboration with two of the restaurants chefs.

. Turandot
. Castellare di Castellina