Il Marroneto – The 2024 Golden Vines® Fine Wine & Experience Online Auction Lot

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Summary

Two six pack specially made wooden cases of Brunello di Montalcino Selezione Madonna delle Grazie (2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017) and Brunello di Montalcino Vintage (2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017) with VIP tour, tasting, and vineyard visit with the irrepressible Alessandro Mori for 4 guests.

Region

Brunello di Montalcino

Country

Italy

Estimate

£3,000 - £6,000

Lot Components

Fine Wine Bottles ✓

Experience ✓

Estate Visit ✓

Vineyard Visit ✓

Tasting ✓

Number of Guests 4 ✓

The Fine Wine

Two six pack specially made wooden cases of Brunello di Montalcino Selezione Madonna delle Grazie (2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017) and Brunello di Montalcino Vintage (2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017).

The Experience

VIP tour, tasting, and vineyard visit with the irrepressible Alessandro Mori for 4 guests.

The Estate

It was 1974. Giuseppe Mori, the father of Alessandro – the current owner of the estate – had fallen in love with the little mediaeval town of Montalcino in the Province of Siena (the town the Mori family originated from) and, in particular, with an ancient tower built in the mid-13th century (which is where they used to dry the marroni, a particular type of chestnut – hence the name). So, he bought the small farm where it was situated and whose view stretched from the city of Siena to the whole of the Orcia Valley.

The farm lay below the thirteenth-century church dedicated to the Madonna delle Grazie – which gave its name to the location where he would plant his first vineyard – on the slope of the little town that faces North.

It was the early years of wine taking off in Montalcino (the Consorzio had only been founded seven years earlier), which was then quite different from the town surrounded by vineyards that visitors can admire today.

Giuseppe’s sons, Andrea and Alessandro, joined their father in this adventure and, even though they continued to follow in his footsteps in the legal profession, they devoted themselves every weekend to the vineyard.

The Mori family planted its first 3000 metres of vines in 1975, then a substantial number in 1979, and the last 9000 metres in 1984.

These were “pioneering” years, as Alessandro – who was then still attending high school – likes to remind people. “Our family didn’t come from the world of wine and, initially, none of us dreamt of making it their full-time job”, Alessandro explains.

But encountering a duo who were almost legendary in the world of Italian – and, in particular, Tuscan – wine like Mario Cortevesio and Giulio Gambelli triggered an extraordinary passion in the Mori family, and in Alessandro in particular.

From their very first meeting, Gambelli made clear to the young Mori boys that wine was something serious: not a game, but a child that needs to be brought up.

Therefore, vintage after vintage, a passion for this world and a real love for Il Marroneto grew in the two young men, especially Alessandro, who in the meantime had graduated and begun his professional career.

For nine years he continued both jobs, working as a lawyer and as a “vigneron”, but in the end the latter got the upper hand.

“Every Monday I went back to the office, but my mind was always elsewhere. I thought about the vineyards, about what I had done during the weekend and about what I should have done”, explains Alessandro Mori, the owner of the estate. “My life had become the vineyard, and I, through it, managed to fully express myself”.

From the first vintage, he vinified in 1976 and the first he bottled in 1980 until today, the story of Il Marroneto and that of Alessandro have gone hand in hand. Each vintage does not only represent a rainy summer or a bitter, windy winter, but also an indelible outline of his life: a career during which Alessandro has increasingly devoted himself entirely to Il Marroneto, in a sort of vigneron’s cursus honorum, and in which 1990 was a fundamental stage.

As Alessandro himself says, “1990 was a wonderful year, both for me and for my wine. Apart from being a perfect vintage for Sangiovese, I decided to free myself from my mentor and life coach and walk on my own two feet. I was ready to do so. From that moment on, I only needed an enologist to look after the health of my vines, but it would be just me who gave an imprint to my wines”.

Every vintage since that turning point in 1990 has represented a forward step and a voyage of discovery of the soils, the vines, the wines and the entire world of Il Marroneto.

Today, Alessandro with his son Iacopo - who continues to be in total control of the estate’s production process - is undoubtedly an experienced vigneron but, as he himself says, “I still have a great deal to learn every day from my vines”.

Terms & Conditions

Within 12 months of the auction.

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