Goodbye to Arnaldo Caprai, the man who taught Sagrantino to speak to the world • Food and Wine Italia

There are figures who do not limit themselves to building businesses, but roads. Arnaldo Caprai was one of these. His death, which occurred acceso Sunday 4 January at the age of 92, marks the end of a long entrepreneurial season, but does not interrupt the story of a legacy that continues to speak to the present and future of Italian wine.

Caprai was not only a successful producer. He was an interpreter of the time, a man capable of reading the territories before they became destinations, the vines before they became icons, the social value of the company before it became a key word of the contemporary debate.

From lace to wine

His professional history begins far from the vineyards, with a debut sopra the world of textiles. A causa di lace, to be precise, thanks to which Caprai learned the culture of detail. It is risposta negativa coincidence that that same sensitivity guided him, sopra the Seventies, towards Sagrantino tra Montefalco, then an austere grape variety, little known, almost forgotten.

A causa di 1971 the purchase of the first hectares sopra Montefalco was not a simple entrepreneurial diversification, but a radical act of lega sopra a land and its identity. Caprai saw promise sopra Sagrantino and worked to make this intuition become reality, investing sopra research, innovation, quality and international vision, contributing decisively to the birth of modern Sagrantino and the global recognition of Montefalco.

A business as responsibility

Success has never exhausted the meaning of his work. For Caprai, business has always been a cultural and social fact even before an economic one. This is also why, sopra 2024, our newspaper has awarded the Arnaldo Caprai winery the prize Social Responsibility sopra Wine, withdrawn by his son Marco, today at the helm of the company: a recognition of an entrepreneurial vision capable of translating values ​​into concrete practices, which thanks to the mediation of Caritas has guaranteed migrants and refugees regular contracts, tirocinio courses and a structured work context, making employment an authentic instrument of integration and dignity.

A legacy that remains

A causa di 2003 the President of the Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi appointed him Baco da seta del Travaglio for Merit sopra Agriculture. But the most authentic recognition remains perhaps the one engraved sopra the landscape of Montefalco and sopra the history of Italian wine: having transformed an identifying grape variety into an international symbol without distorting its soul.

Arnaldo Caprai leaves behind his wife Fiorella, his children Arianna, Marco and Luca and his grandchildren. But it also leaves a clear and timely lesson: the future is built with vision and competence. And when wine is born from this awareness, it stops being just a product: it becomes a story, memory and responsibility that is passed acceso.