Carolina Wine Brands


Il Poggiolo

Mine is a story linked to the land, which started from Castelnuovo dell'Abate where my grandfather Bramante was a farmer, before opening a workshop in S. Angelo, where he repaired tractors, in the thirties, and arrived at Poggiolo, where today I produce few bottles, but many labels, each with its own history and philosophy. The real protagonist of this story is not me, it is my father, Roberto, son of Bramante, owner in S. Angelo Scalo of an agricultural machinery shop known by all, who in 1971 decided to buy a 65 hectare farm, Il Poggiolo, with money he saved by selling agricultural machinery. The farm was uninhabited, without a cellar, without even a single row of vines, in practice, without anything. At that time, there were just 28 Brunello producers in Montalcino, it was not that economic and commercial phenomenon that we have learned to appreciate in the following decades. Yet, my father Roberto believed in it immediately, planted the first 3 hectares, bought the first cement tanks and the first Slavonian oak barrels, worth 30 hectoliters. A few years later, in 1980, the first 4,000 bottles of Brunello di Montalcino were born, vintage 1975. For me, the spark was lit in 1984, when I participated for the first time in Vinitaly. The following year, I started to produce my own wine, giving life to the first Cru of Brunello di Montalcino, the Sassello, which followed the logic of the French Cru: a selection on the market at a price double the base, when no one was doing it yet. In 1989, with the death of my father Roberto, I found myself in the situation of having to take over the company, continuing to make wine, until today, exactly as he would have done it. For my father, producing his own wine was an enormous satisfaction. I proudly carry on his work by creating an increasingly refined artisan product, appreciated by wine lovers from my Montalcino area. In all this, a separate chapter deserves Cecilia, my partner, who has always supported me without ever missing her critical point of view, supporting my impulses and keeping my excesses in check. A difficult role, because she is a sunny person, I am moody, always looking for a balance. A good part of my intuitions are thanks to her, I have, in a sense, been fed with her energy.