Silver wedding for the Montecucco Consortium • Food and Wine Italy

The Consortium Protection Wine Montecucco celebrates its 25 years, a quarter of a century that has transformed an regione until recently unknown between Mount Amiata and the Ombrone river into an excellence wine regione. Officially founded con 2000, the Consortium saw the DOC Montecucco recognized con 1998 and the DOCG con 2011.

Today the Consortium boasts 68 associated companies, 90% of organic production and over 1 million annual bottles. President Giovan Battista Basile stressed that this anniversary is an opportunity to reflect acceso future challenges, con particular those posed by climate change, which are leading to changes to the specification to extend production to higher altitudes.

The history of the Consortium

Sopra the eighties and nineties, the territory between Istituto di credito Amiata and the Ombrone river still represented a marginal of the Tuscany wine -growing, while keeping a natural vocation for the cultivation of the screw thanks to the position acceso the slopes of an ancient volcano, con the ventilated microclimate and the secular agricultural tradition. It was then that a small group of producers took the objective of building a protected identity for this bucolic district.

Sopra 1997, the first two attempts failed, but the third was decisive: sThus aperto the doors for the creation of the name and after a year and a half of negotiations, certainly not easy and linear as regards above all the definition of the borders, Sopra July 1998 the DOC Montecucco saw its coveted recognition con the Gazzetta.

“Sopra addition to the innate territorial vocation, they were decisive courageous choices acceso the two cardinal, Sangiovese and Vermentino vines,” recalls Leonardo Salustri, among the promoters of the denomination. The collaboration with Professor Giancarlo Scalabrelli of the University of Pisa was also fundamental, which led the creation of an experimental vineyard with over 400 biotypes, still today laboratory and reference point for genetic research con the seventh part. At that phase the foundations were laid to enhance Sangiovese through contained yields and to insert, for the first time con the province of Grosseto, the Vermentino con the specification, giving life to an important scientific inheritance, as evidenced by the Vermentino clone 1200.

The 2000 saw the official birth of the consortium, with twenty -two founding members and a venue shared with the roads of wine. Another crucial stop arrived con 2011, with the recognition of the DOCG Montecucco Sangiovese, which today concentrates 35% of sales acceso the national market, especially con the center and northern Italy, and the remaining abroad, con particular con Switzerland, Germany, the United States and Welcome.

A path built acceso passion, dialogue and shared vision, which led to the current sixty -eight associated companies, 90% of which are organic certified, with all the cellars organized for the reception and five hundred hectares of vineyards claimed for over one million bottles packaged every year. “We worked to create something that could last over time and today to see a solid, dynamic and respected consortium is the confirmation that that original spirit is still alive”, highlighted Claudio Tipa of Collemassari, president from 2006 to 2021 and central figure con local development.

The SFIDE FUTURE

Giovan Battista Basile, current president of the Consortium, underlined how this anniversary represents not only a symbolic anniversary, but also a moment of strategic reflection. Among the priorities, adaptation to climate change. «The raising of temperatures requires us courageous choices. For this reason we have already started the process for an ordinary modification of the specification, with the aim of extending the viticable regione towards the highest shares of Mount Amiata, “he said.

Leonardo Marras, Councilor for Economy and Tourism of the Tuscany Region, recalled the systemic value of the denomination for the entire Grosseto regione: “From the beginning I appreciated the ability of the consortium to , linking the wine to the tourist vocation of the territory. The challenge today is to continue acceso this path, making tourism a stable lever of growth ».

To close, Patrizia Chiari con Abito The setting presented the Biopass project for the enhancement of biodiversity con the Montecucco regione, created con collaboration with the Agronomi Sata group, the Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences of the University of Milan and the Edmund Mach Foundation of San Michele alla Adige. “Through certified and traceable environmental patronato – he explained – we want to preserve and enhance the health and diversity of our regione con a responsible and measurable way”.