On Monday 5 June 2023, the Banfi Brunello Ambassador Club opened its doors for a ceremony reserved to its first sixty Ambassadors - Italian professionals who, since the early 1980s, when the first bottle of Brunello di Montalcino Banfi was launched on the market with the 1978 vintage, significantly helped its worldwide success.
“Pioneering has always been one of our core values - says Cristina Mariani-May, CEO and second generation of this family of entrepreneurs - Being pioneers was part of the vision that guided my father to create Banfi, and today it is a pillar of our corporate identity. Establishing a special Club, made by the people who shared this value since the beginning, is something we felt we had to do, to thank them for the past, and ask them to accompany us into our future.”
Castello Banfi was once again the venue of a special day, with the exclusive allure of its multi-century old history, for a group of leading professionals.
The Castle’s walls welcomed, in an ideal embrace, the Ambassadors of Brunello Banfi with an investiture ceremony worthy of the glory of Montalcino, of Tuscany and high-end Made in Italy.
Banfi’s story is made by people, by the relations between them, and by the tales of many lives. The Banfi Brunello Ambassador Club was created to welcome all this, and consolidate it in the future.
This is where the words of Cristina Mariani-May stem from, in the nominee letter sent months ago to each Banfi Ambassador:
“It was back in 1978, when my father John, together with Ezio Rivella, decided to fulfill a dream: proving to the world that the impossible was possible, and that Montalcino could become one of the oenological references for the entire Planet. The ingredients for success were all there: the awareness of having a unique territory at their disposal, with an unexpressed potential; then Sangiovese, a leading vineyard for Italian winemaking, and yet not fully aware of it; and then, Brunello di Montalcino, a wine with a great personality and immense possibilities, still unknown to most people, especially outside of this territory. What was missing was the market. A broadest, more far-sighted production and marketing vision, capable of launching the challenge to the world’s elite of great wines, without feeling inferior, proud of our thousand-year old winemaking culture, and with the courage and resourcefulness to achieve it. And that is where we and all the people like you who believed in this idea came in.”
