Benvenuto Brunello a 28 year old success

Benvenuto Brunello a 28 year old success

Triumphal edition of Benvenuto Brunello with the 5 stars of the super vintage 2019, Vittorio Sgarbi, the president of the coni Malagò and an assault of wine lovers. Today we talk about Benvenuto Brunello and a 28 year old success 

by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

HOW BENVENUTO BRUNELLO WAS BORN

It is said that the idea of the previews was born during a trip to the USA of the Consortium of Brunello when the president Sante Turone announced to his deputy Andrea Constanti and to the director Stefano Campatelli we will make an event to present Brunello who is about to enter trade and give evaluation (from one to 5 stars) of the last harvest. His name will be Benvenuto Brunello.

Despite the astonishing reaction of the two interlocutors the project went on and the first edition was organized in 1992 in the multipurpose halls under the Municipality of Montalcino while the tile with the two stars of the harvest was painted by Roberto Turchi.
A year later, at the event, it grew up moving under a tent set up in the fourteenth-century fortress of Montalcino and then (with my personal contribution), in the present location of the Sant’Agostino complex. As the influx of specialized journalists from all over the world grew, so did the buyers, who have traditionally reserved the last two days of the tastings. In the success of Benvenuto Brunello has played a determining role the  Montalcino agency WineNews of Irene and Alessandro Regoli that grew of reputation and importance almost at the same speed.

THE BENVENUTO BRUNELLO REPLICAS BECOME THE PHENOMENON OF THE PREVIEWS OF WINES.

While the Montalcino event was replicated in New York and then in other foreign strategic markets, other Italian wine consortia began to follow the trail of Brunello. In Tuscany Chianti Classico, Vino Nobile and Vernaccia were then followed by other consortia coordinated by the Regional Administration.

In the other parts of Italy all the great denominations have organized the previews to form an exhausting calendar for both buyers and wine critics.
The proliferation of replicas of the Montalcino event triggered a kind of competition based on the gigantism and luxury for which the dinners had to be more and more starry but less and less close to the territory of origin of the wine, the locations had to have more and more spectacular settings and increasingly foreign to the simplicity of the countryside.

BENVENUTO BRUNELLO EMPTIED OF ITS SUPPORTING ELEMENTS

 

Meanwhile, the main journalists began to ask for separate tastings at the Brunello Consortium. This request has been progressively extended to almost all the guides and main magazines, emptying Benvenuto Brunello of many of the most important characters and breaking that beautiful link between producers and tasters. A link that arose from the opportunity to taste and then meet, in the adjacent space, the producers of wine.
Despite the attempt to fill Benvenuto Brunello with slightly different contents every year: conferences, tiles painted by famous people, prestigious winners of the prize Leccio D’Oro awarded every year to restaurants and wine bars that enhance the wine of Montalcino …. Well despite this, despite the huge success of audiences and wine lovers coming from all over the world ……… the event has aged.

THE BRUNELLO CONSORTIUM ANNOUNCES THE RENEWAL OF THE BENVENUTO

For this reason, in Montalcino, the desire to reinvent it with a new formula has increased. The project, in the yard for 2021 has been announced by the President Fabrizio Bindocci to Trebicchieri weekly Gambero Rosso specifying the intention to create a sort of laboratory of ideas with all the producers.

This is a bold turning point because changing, for a territory that has achieved success like Brunello, is not easy. It highlights an ability to accept risks from true leaders and the presence of a particular DNA that has allowed Montalcino, over the centuries, to stand out and get to the top. Let us not forget that in 1559 it was the last city state in Italy.

THE SUCCESS NUMBERS OF MONTALCINO WINES

Benvenuto Brunello and a 28 year old success story. It is now my duty to highlight the numbers that define the dimension of Montalcino’s success and that I draw from WineNews.
The value of the vineyards has risen by 4,500% in 50 years. Today to buy a hectare of Brunello you have to spend about 1 million Euro. We can therefore say that the hill of Montalcino is covered by a green mantle that is worth more than two billion Euros.
Even the liquid treasure kept in the cellars reaches a staggering figure: 400 million that triple once the wine is bottled and placed on the market exceeding the billion.