Castello Banfi and Jazz & Wine in Montalcino (13th edition)

From Robin Eubanks to Avion Travel, eight great concerts celebrating jazz and great wine.

Jazz & Wine in Montalcino, one of the longest-running events on the Italian music scene, was born in 1998 from the collaboration between Castello Banfi, the well-known Montalcino winery, the cultural association Jazz & Image of Rome and the Municipality of Montalcino. Also this 13th edition will propose, as usual, an extremely rich and heterogeneous programme that will range over different musical languages, with particular attention to the great female voices of Jazz.

On Wednesday 14 July, the opening concert will be held within the evocative walls of Castello Banfi and will feature a quartet of absolute international calibre: Robin Eubanks with Pippo Matino 4tet, a truly special encounter between the great American trombonist and one of Italy's most interesting electric bassists.

Castello Banfi and Jazz & Wine in Montalcino (13th edition): the programme

From 15 July, the festival will move, as tradition has it, to the splendid 14th-century fortress of Montalcino with the unmissable "piano solo" by Danilo Rea, one of the most elegant and eclectic protagonists of the jazz scene and beyond. Maria Joao duo, on 16 July, will open the triptych of female voices that will accompany the entire first weekend in Montalcino. Portuguese from Lisbon, with a peculiar and biting timbre, she boasts many years of experience alongside the greatest interpreters of international jazz. On Saturday 17 July, the splendid voice of Rossana Casale, accompanied by her quartet, will return to the Montalcino stage with the project 'The Wine Concert and Readings', absolutely in keeping with the spirit and roots of the festival. The first week will close on 18 July with Roberta Gambarini 4tet, one of the most appreciated and established female voices abroad thanks to her undeniable improvisational abilities and an interpretative technique of absolute level.

The Mirabassi-Renzi-Parker Trio will open the second week of the festival on Thursday 22 July with a concert that promises to be the perfect fusion of three great personalities of the international jazz scene. Then, on 23 July, it will be the turn of another great trio of refined elegance and great experience, the Pietropaoli-DeVito-Mazzariello with their concert-tribute to Joni Mitchell.On 24 July, the festival will close with the "Avion Travel" orchestra, who will play the best of their latest works: Danson Metropoli and Nino Rota, l'amico magico.

For the thirteenth consecutive year, two such intimate and intense pleasures, jazz music and great quality wine, are celebrating their exciting encounter in Montalcino, the symbolic town of Brunello, with increasing success.

For information contact: Pro-Loco Montalcino - tel. 0577 849331 - Email: info@prolocomontalcino.it

Marketing Banfi - tel. 0577 840 111- Email: marketing@banfi.it

Concerts: 9.45 p.m. - tickets 10.00/13.00 euro - presale c/o Proloco Montalcino

Castello Banfi il Borgo in the July issue of the magazine

July 2010, Christopher Petkanas - For years, tourists have demanded nothing more from Tuscany than its brightness and landscapes, its Renaissance heritage, its food and wine. If the hotels had few comforts, if the person who prepared the pasta in the kitchen was the same person who made your bed, you still had an ambience full of enchantment and animated by goodwill. A trip to this region was in itself an extraordinary reward.

La Tuscany has become one of those rare, iconic, inexhaustible destinations to which people return. Thirty years have passed since Tuscany and Provence became real rivals. But while the south of France can sometimes be guilty of forgetting what brought people there, Tuscany has never sold its soul for popularity. Icon yes, diva no.

Today, a new generation of hotels has arrived in the region, which can still be described as young. This includes the 'borgo' phenomenon, i.e. the transformation of old country cottages into 'all-in-one' properties, which include restaurants, shops and vineyards. Another type is the 'villa', with rich histories and important architecture.

All offer sublime comfort and aspire to an excellent level of service. They are so sophisticated that they would not be out of place in the elegant setting of the Amalfi coast. Tuscany grows by going back in time.

Banfi Castle, The Village

Castello Banfi - Poggio alle Mura is one of the largest estates in Tuscany and, since its opening, its new hotel, Il Borgo, is probably also the most elegant.

Just as Federico Forquet has won the most important awards for style, the Mariani family has done the same with wine. Among them the two most important Brunellos, the Poggio all'Oro Riserva and the cru Poggio alle Mura. Forquet began his career as an assistant to Balenciaga, launching his own home line in Rome in 1962, when he was nicknamed 'the Italian Dior'.

At this time, every Italian princess wished to have the precious Buccellati objects designed by Forquet. After ten years he left the fashion world, moving into garden design and, following his Neapolitan origins, decorating houses with Visconti splendour, for clients such as Marella Agnelli and Oscar de la Renta, known for their inflexibility.

After these achievements, Forquet only accepts jobs that he finds compelling enough to take him away from his home in Cetona, an hour's drive from Banfi. Sometimes it is the interiors of splendid hotels: the Caruso, in Ravello, Villa San Michele in Fiesole. And now Il Borgo.

The property

The 14-room property at the top of the hill is a hamlet built in the 1700s to house farm workers and servants in service to the castle, located just above. The population grew to around 300 in the decade leading up to the First World War and remained stable until 1950, when the land reform introduced by the Italian government dismantled the entire old sharecropping system.

The hotel reception occupies the shop and post office, which closed shortly before the Mariani acquired Poggio alle Mura (historical name of Castello Banfi) in 1984. By that year, the number of inhabitants had dropped to less than 20.

Today, the old school is room number 37. Nothing transpires of the use that was made of these spaces, but the mere knowledge of it adds to its uniqueness. The hotel's hilltop location loses itself in extravagant views giving a sense of privileged isolation. Inside there is a very comfortable reading room, a museum with the world's largest private collection of ancient Roman glass (plus works by Dali, Cocteau and Picasso), and a spectacular courtyard where jazz concerts are held in summer. [...] One of the five buildings surrounding the castle walls houses La Taverna [...].

Next door is a large, beautiful wine shop that also sells ceramic coats of arms and other wine accessories, Banfi olive oil, colourful ceramics made by local artisans, handmade soaps, and real wine service jewellery [...].

A condiment that is not, rightly, called Balsamic Vinegar, since we are not in Emilia Romagna, but Salsa Etrusca, made in a dedicated room, following the traditional Solera method used to make authentic balsamic. [...] Banfi is one of the few estates in this area that encourages cellar visits, for which reservations are required.

It is five minutes by car or a 20-minute walk through vineyards. According to Forquet, many people wouldn't give a lira for rattan furniture and checked fabrics. So what's the secret? Well, the big secret is the way he manages to 'casually' combine modest and rich elements, such as Austrian hot air balloons and orchids in silver vases so clean you can mirror yourself in them. Fanciful walls painted with latticework wrapped in wine, a faux-bois masterpiece sculpted with bunches of grapes is another ingredient of Forquet's best work. [...].