Ordinary Members

The historic estate of the Borghini Baldovinetti de’Bacci counts is located just a few miles away from the old walls of the city of Arezzo on the hills surrounding the city. The first document which demonstrates the presence of vineyards on the property goes back to 1416: the document treats the sale of a vineyard by Baccio de’Bacci to finance the decoration of the family chapel in the church of Saint Francis in Arezzo, a work carried out by Piero della Francesca. The estate itself was created as a wine-producing operation after World War II and expanded in the 1960’s to include bottling and marketing of estate wines. Today it extends over more than 2100 total acres, 500 planted to vineyards, on medium-consistence calcareous clay soils. The property is divided into three different units: San Fabiano, just a few miles from Arezzo, where the estate is also headquartered; Campriano, between the Casentino and Valdarno valleys, the site of the principal crus; and Poggio Oliveto at Montepulciano, with a technologically advanced cellar built in 2001, 75 acres of vineyards and a splendid exposition which produces an excellent Vino Nobile of the appellation. Among the estate wines is the San Fabiano Chianti. The finest Sangiovese, Canaiolo, Ciliegiolo, and Malvasia Nera grapes are hand picked into packing cases, and rapidly brought to the estate. The fermentation rigorously respects tradition and the appellation rules: after destemming and pressing the grapes ferment in temperature-controlled stainless steel tans at temperatures of 82° Fahrenheit; periodic pumping over of the cap continues for some days. A bright ruby red with aromas of red fruit and spices, it is intensely flavoured and very fresh, a fine match with white meat, roasts, soft and flavorful cheeses, and goat cheese. The top wine, however, is the Vinsanto I Cannicci del Conte. The grapes are hand picked, then dried to increase concentration of sugars and aromas. The grapes are pressed a few days before Christmas, fermented in small barrels, then aged in the barrels for at least four years. Amber in color, redolent of raisins and honey, it finishes with notes of candied fruit. A wine for sipping and for meditation.

The business boasts over 1000 years of activity, with the earliest testimony to Cusona’s existence dating back to 994 AD. The Cusona estate spreads over 530 hectares and is situated amongst the green Tuscan hills, close to the medieval town of San Gimignano (known as the medieval Manhattan). Throughout the centuries, the political and economic weight of the Strozzi and Guicciardini families, with their illustrious figures, has influenced the history, not only of Tuscany, but also of Italy and Europe.Francesco Guicciardini,for whom Niccolo’ Machiavelli started his political career as secretary,became a prominent political figure, acting as Governor of the Papal States as well as being a philosopher and historian. The Strozzi were powerful bankers, heads of State and mercenary commanders. As direct rivals of the Medici, they were banned from Florence following the rise to power of Cosimo dei Medici. Nevertheless they increased their enormous wealth elsewhere, which enabled Fillippo Strozzi, once back from exile, to build the magnificent Palazzo Strozzi in Florence. Piero Strozzi was Marshal of France and commanding officer of the French troops. His bust is displayed in Gallery of Battles in Versailles. [During the XVII century the descendants of the Guicciardini Strozzi family were united in marriage in London to the Marlborough’s, the family of Sir Winston Churchill.Amongst the illustrious ancestors a special mention should be given to Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo, otherwise known as La Gioconda, painted by Leornado da Vinci. The current members of the family are the 15th generation of descendants of Monna Lisa.In 1850 the building of a cellar with underground galleries was starter under the leadership of Francesco Guicciardini, Mayor of Florence and Minister of Agriculture and Foreign Affairs and married to Luisa Strozzi.At that time Cusona became a prominent national example of avant-garde business.In the 70’s, Prince Girolamo Strozzi started selling the wine around the world, a business he still runs with his wife Irina and his two daughters Natalia and Irina Jr. In 1999 the wine production extended to other areas such as Maremma (Bolgheri, Scansano, Montemassi) and Pantelleria.The Guicciardini Strozzi winery produces 22 varieties of wines. Amongst the best known labels is the Vernaccia di San Gimignano, which was produced for the first time by the winery in 1200 and exalted by Dante, Michelangelo and Boccaccio. The Medici Court enjoyed the Vernaccia and also sent it to the Pope. Sparkling white wine (spumante) and grappa are also produced using the Vernaccia grapes. The historical red wine labels include Sodole, a 100% San Giovese and Millanni, produced to mark the 1000 year anniversary of the winery, made with a mix of San Giovese, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.

Termeno (Tramin in German) is a village in the lower Adige valley, a viticultural area to the south of the city of Bolzano which is famous as the home town of Gewürztraminer, a grape variety with a typical aroma frequently, and incorrectly, translated into Italian as “aromatic Tramin”: a more accurate translation would be “spicy Tramin” for the wine’s notable scent of cloves. Here the ancient Rhaetian people produced wine centuries before the Roman armies arrived and colonized the territory. In the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in 1898, Christian Schrott, the parish priest of Tramin and a deputy in the Austrian Parliament, founded one of the first “Kellereigenossenshaft” (cooperative wineries) of the South Tyrol, the Austrian name for Italy’s Alto Adige region. Today, more than 110 years later, the Cantina Tramin has become a significant force in the economy of the region with more than 280 associates and 575 acres of vineyards under cultivation in the area around Termeno.
The production philosophy of the cooperative is to maintain, and give even greater luster, to the viticultural patrimony of the zone and to seek to preserve a harmonious and balanced relationship with the environment, to the point that many of the vineyards are cultivated according to the tenents of natural and biological agriculture. The product line is divided into a series of different quality levels. The more prestigious selections have been created to show off the high level of the various grape varieties and crus: the soft Schiava wines of the Freisinger vineyard, the fruity Pinot Grigio of Unterebener, the herbaceous Sauvignon of Stoan, the fragrant Pinot Blanc of Stoan, and the powerful Lagrein Dunkel of the lovely Urban vineyard. The speciality of Cantina Tramin is unquestionably Gewürztraminer, produced in a variety of different versions which express both the special aromatic characteristics of the grape and the specific vineyard source. The Gewürztraminer Roan is a late-harvest wine which is then aged in oak, an intense straw yellow in color, very fruity on the nose with notes of both citrus and tropical fruit mingled with spice and honey. Nussbaumer is a sort of grand cru of Termeno, one of the township’s oldest Gewürztraminer vineyards, long considered one of the finest spots of all for the cultivation of the grape. The wine has very intense aromas of both fresh and ripe fruit, spice, and dried roses; on the palate its flavors are of a rare intensity and purity, exceptional in their length and aromatic persistence. At the top of the quality pyramid is the Gewürztraminer Terminum, a wine of absolute stature and excellence, extraordinary in its aromatic concentration, potent and enveloping in its fused and balanced notes of fruit and spices, sweet and characterful in flavor and impeccably suave.