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Telling an historic event through a unique witness: wine. That is what the Castelli del Grevepesa winery wanted to do by organizing an event in its San Casciano wine cellars, an event remembering the 300 years of the Banns of Cosimo lll.

“25 years after our first bottle of Chianti Classico Clemente Vll, a wine that has had grand success in every market year after year, we wanted to celebrate the great Clemente Vll, Chianti citizen by adoption, with the production of the Gran Selezione”, tells us Ugo Pagliai, General director of Castelli del Grevepesa, the largest producer of Chianti Classico.

“We have 18 vineyards cultivated around Pieve di Campoli”, explains Pagliai, “place where Cardinal Giulio de Medici sojourned and celebrated the sweetness of the surrounding hills, before becoming Pope in 1523 with the name of Clemente Vll. Our winery has always chosen our own grapes to obtain unique and original wines that can express the excellence of the best vineyards. Because of this, leaning on the success of our Clemente Vll, until now realized in “Annata” and “Riserva”, we considered it important to add a limited production of “Gran Selezione”, the maximum expression of the quality pyramid of ChiantiClassico”.

Experts and historians took part in the event to underline the importance of the Medici family for the future of Tuscan wine. “The Medici’s”, illustrated professor Zeffiro Ciuffoletti, historian of the University of Florence with a passion for Chianti history, “were not only able merchants and extraordinary patrons, but as Princes, with wisdom and foresight understood that to give value to the natural resources and fruits of the land would mean enriching their own heritage. The Bann of Cosimo lll, which for the first time in the world defines the various wine producing zones, is eloquent proof”.

Clemente Vll was protagonist of one of the most dramatic moments in the history of the Pontificate and a political man with human traits. He was described by Cristina Acidini, Superintendent of the Florentine Museums as “a man who never gives up, because to be Pope means to be chosen with a divine mandate”.

The Consortium of Chianti Classico wine is also a participant of the initiative. “Tuscan wines”, added Giuseppe Liberatore, general director of the Consortium, “strongly contribute to the agricultural-alimentary success of Italy. And Chianti Classico has increased its exportation in 2016, celebrating its 300 years with a look to the past and… the future”.