BARONE RICASOLI

History, tradition and prestige: these are the words that could summarize the development of the Barone Ricasoli company, a reality which, according to the prestigious American magazine "Family Business", a magazine that deals with analyzing family-run

History, tradition and prestige: these are the words that could summarize the development of the Barone Ricasoli company, a reality which, according to the prestigious American magazine "Family Business", a magazine that deals with analyzing family-run businesses, is one of the wineries oldest in the world, undoubtedly the first in the panorama of Italian wine. The Ricasoli name is in fact linked to the world of viticulture since 1141, the year in which the Castello di Brolio, located in Gaiole in Chianti, became the property of the family. Over the centuries, as early as the early 1600s there is evidence of exports made to the Netherlands and England, while at the beginning of the 1900s the bottles began their first journeys to China, South Africa, Costa Rica and British Africa. The history of the company is inextricably linked to a particular character, the creator of one of the most successful Tuscan products in the world today, Chianti: it is Baron Bettino Ricasoli, who, around 1830, began the experiments of a wine that, in his mind, had to be able to hold a candle to its great French cousins. After about 30 years of attempts, Bettino identified the "magic" formula that gave birth to Chianti, highlighting the fundamental role of Sangiovese grapes combined with other indigenous red grape varieties, such as Canaiolo and Malvasia. Today the company, led by Francesco Ricasoli, Bettino's great-grandson, is the largest in the Chianti Classico terroir, with about 1200 hectares of property of which 235 are cultivated with different types of vines, both native and international. Every year the production is around 2 million bottles, where Sangiovese plays a fundamental part in almost all labels, sometimes flanked by cabernet sauvignon, petit verdot, cabernet franc and merlot, to create unique and identity products, which represent in the world the history of true Italian quality wine.