An amazing ten-handed dinner with some of Italy's most renowned chefs, all belonging to the Relais & Châteaux association, for a unique food and wine experience.

On 18 November, Castello Banfi hosted one of the stages of the Vini&Chef Symposium, for a surprising dinner for ten hands. The event featured renowned chefs from some of Italy's most important restaurants, all belonging to the prestigious association Relais & Châteaux.

Wine & Chef Symposium

Wine & Chef Symposium was born thanks to the collaboration of Domenico Francone, Chef of La Sala dei Grappoli at Castello Banfi Wine Resort, with Alessandro Negrini and Fabio Pisani of Il Luogo di Aimo e Nadia, Valeria Piccini of Caino, Ivan Ruocco of Hotel Bellevue Syrene, and Egon Heiss of Castel Fragsburg. In previous stages, Domenico Francone was a guest of the other chefs at their restaurants.

At the Castello Banfi Wine Resort event, each of the chefs tried their hand at a dish, for a sophisticated five-course menu, accompanied by a prestigious selection of wines Banfi.

Relais & Châteaux, founded in 1954, groups together luxury hotels and restaurants that are owned and managed by independent entrepreneurs - in most cases, families - united by a passion for their craft and a desire to establish an authentic bond with their guests.

Castello Banfi is among the very few Italian Residences in the Association that boast their own wine production that captures and conveys the history, passion and culture of their host region.

The evening's programme was enriched by a conversation of the guests present with Gabriele Gorelli MW: Fine Wine & Fine Dining. During the activity, the links between wine and fine dining were explored, with the chefs present as protagonists, through their personal links, and their dishes, with the world of wine.

Signed with FinDynamic the first agreement introducing dynamic discounting in the wine sector thanks to the partnership with UniCredit Factoring.

Banfi, a leading wine producer founded in 1978 and an excellence of Made in Italy, has signed a dynamic discount programme with FinDynamic, a fintech company participated by UniCredit, to favour the economic recovery of its suppliers located in the Tuscan territories of Montalcino, Bolgheri, and Chianti, and the Piedmontese territories, comprised of the municipalities of Novi Ligure and Acqui Terme.

This is the first example of the application of dynamic discounting in the wine sector, which is characterised by the presence of operators who often have numerous small and medium-sized suppliers, for whom the instrument is particularly suited to their liquidity needs.

Unicredit and Banfi to support the wine sector

The agreement, signed thanks to the contribution of UniCredit Factoring, is in addition to the Confirming agreement signed in 2020 and allows Banfi to complete the path of support to its supply chain, granting suppliers various options of flexibility in the collection of receivables.

FinDynamic's solution allows both Banfi and its suppliers to automatically display invoices within a web or mobile platform and easily select invoices for prepayment. Suppliers will be able to finance their working capital by obtaining advance payment of invoices in exchange for a discount, which varies dynamically in relation to the number of days in advance of the payment date agreed on the invoice.

Enrico Viglierchio, CEO of Banfi, commented: 'Embracing FinDynamic's solution means being even closer to the specific needs of each of our individual suppliers, with concrete and dynamic support, thus recognising their high value.

Andrea Burchi, UniCredit Centre North Regional Manager, remarked: "Knowledge of the territory and continuous dialogue with entrepreneurs allow us to promptly intercept the needs of companies. In this case, the synergy with the other companies in our group, together with the specialisation of the product offered, allowed us to offer Banfi an innovative and customised solution'.

Simone del Guerra, CEO of UniCredit Factoring, said: "Our commitment to developing innovative solutions through collaborations with the fintech company FinDynamic allows us to enrich our offering of solutions to support supply chains and to support corporate customers and their suppliers in the restart process."

Enrico Viganò, Ceo & Founder of FinDynamic, emphasised: '2021 is also proving to be a very important year for FinDynamic, in which companies have recognised us as a true ally to support their supply chain. We are proud that Banfi has chosen us to support its suppliers: our platform is in fact an innovative tool that facilitates the relationship between all supply chain actors through technology and continuous innovation.

The event took place on 20 September, at 18:30, at the Teatro degli Astrusi in Montalcino.

On Monday 20 September, at 18:30, Banfi and the Banfi Foundation presented the third edition of the Rudy Buratti Degree Award in Viticulture and Enology and the Sustainability Report 2020.

Rudy Buratti Degree Award in Viticulture and Enology

The Banfi Foundation, through Sanguis Jovis-Alta Scuola del Sangiovese, and the Scuola Enologica di San Michele all'Adige have decided to remember the extraordinary figure of Rudy, who died prematurely in January 2018, by dedicating a degree award in Viticulture and Oenology to him. Rudy, had graduated from the Scuola Enologica di San Michele all'Adige in 1981, and had arrived at Banfi in 1983. One of the main protagonists of the extraordinary entrepreneurial history of the Ilcinese company, he was a great promoter of the mission of Sanguis Jovis, and the award intends to remember his human and professional figure, taking him as an example to young people in the sector.

The winner of the third edition, which, like the previous ones, was an incredible success, is Mario Wegher with his study on 'Comparison of two methods for reducing bunch compactness in Vitis Vinifera vs. Pinot Grigio'.

Stefano Tiefenthaler, on the other hand, is the winner of the second edition of the Prize, which, due to the pandemic situation, could not be held regularly in 2020. Dr. Tiefenthaler presents his study on the 'Determination of Rotundone Concentration in Italian Syrah Wines'.

In addition to receiving a scholarship, both winners had the opportunity to attend the fourth edition of the Summer School free of charge. The theme was 'Maturation and maturity of Sangiovese: the search for a balance between viticulture and oenology'.

Sustainability Report 2020

On the same occasion, there was also the official presentation of the Banfi 2020 Sustainability Report which, as we had announced when it was published on 22 April last, can be consulted in its full form and abstract at the following link: https://www.www.banfi.it/it/sostenibilita/.

Banfi has obtained Equalitas certification. A goal achieved with CSQA thanks to the long journey undertaken through the numerous sustainable initiatives in the area and the publication of the Sustainability Report since 2016.

Banfi Società Agricola s.r.l., a leading company in the area of Montalcino, obtained certification Equalitascertification of the Sustainability Management System for the Wine Sector, following an audit by CSQA.

A pioneer of Sustainability, one of the company's founding values, as well as an authentic and emblematic element of its path, Banfi has established a balanced and productive relationship with the territory in which it operates and a genuine interaction with its collaborators and the institutions with which it dialogues. The path undertaken since its inception has evolved over the years, following the growing demand for quality and safety in the wine world.

Cristina Mariani-Mayowner and CEO of Banfi, states:

"We started thinking and working sustainably in unthinkable times, when it was not yet a trend. Our product comes from the Earth, we know perfectly well that our success goes hand in hand with respect for the environment, so we have always tried to be in harmony with the land that surrounds us, from the vineyard to the finished product: wine. Extensive research carried out since the very early 1980s (Banfi was founded in 1978) in collaboration with the most important Italian universities and research centres, but not only, allows us to fully respect the territory in which we operate and to produce high quality wines. In the last 750 years, our estate in Montalcino has had only three different owners. My duty is to make this area better than my family found it, for future generations. Achieving Equalitas certification is a natural achievement, a sign of respect for all admirers of Banfi's fine wines around the world".

Banfi achieved Equalitas certification

Obtaining Equalitas certification follows the certification of the Sustainability Report 2020 which was subjected to the limited assurance according to the ISAE 3000 Revised standard. In fact, the Sustainability Report is one of the hallmarks of the EQUALITAS standard, along with:

• good practices and economic, environmental and social indicators integrated with each other and each declined on the basis of the most advanced experience available;
• the Management System: where the company is led to integrate sustainability into its management dynamics, operating in the area of self-assessment first and foremost;
• third-party certification: which guarantees the consumer about transparency in the management of sustainability goals, but also encourages the company to work continuously and efficiently;
• the collective brand that enables communication to the consumer and the market.

An innovative project for the leading producer of Brunello di Montalcino that, thanks to the Banfi Experience app, offers an immersive virtual experience in the entire Banfi world.

Banfi has decided to explore the world of augmented reality, offering an immersive virtual experience of the entire company world. Something unique, putting the entire experience of the company within smartphone reach, breaking down distances with its customers who will be able to visit the vineyards and the winery from the comfort of their own homes. All this is possible thanks to a unique app: the Banfi Experience.

The experiences that the user can enjoy are many and all very immersive: a journey from the vineyards to the winery, the harvesting and sorting of grapes, and much more. This is possible both with the simple use of the smartphone and with the specific cardboard, thanks to which the moment will be even more real.

The same experiences will also be available to the many visitors to the estate with an innovative tour, which combines the real experience by enriching it with virtual content. A new way of experiencing Banfi and discovering it in a completely different way. The visitor, by framing the markers arranged in the different areas, on his smartphone will see the scene come to life, and will be able to experience, for example, the magical moments of the grape harvest at any time of the year.

"We are particularly proud of this ambitious project, which will make it possible to experience the world of wine at 360° throughout the year," says Rodolfo Maralli, Sales & Marketing Director of Banfi. "Banfi had the courage to dare and explore a new territory: a winning choice that will certainly have interesting developments in the future."

With Banfi Experience, the Ilcinese company had already experimented with augmented reality to bring to life the labels of La Pettegola Limited Edition 2020 (designed by Riccardo Guasco) and 2021 (designed by Elena Salmistraro). By framing the bottle label with the app, the illustration comes alive on the user's screen, creating an interactive and fascinating experience.

Finally, to make the Banfi Experience even more complete and multi-sensory, the app allows direct access to the playlist Spotify "Play the Banfi Experience' and get into the Banfi mood.

Banfi Experience is available both for Android on the Play Store and for iOS on the Apple Store.

The innovative project was entrusted to Publifarm, a communications agency specialising in digital and augmented reality projects, with which the company has been working for years.

With Stefano Bollani the curtain rises on Jazz & Wine 2021 in Montalcino. Next Tuesday, 20 July, in the marvellous Tuscan village, the 24th edition of the festival kicks off, a collaboration between the Banfi winery, the Rubei family of the Alexanderplatz Jazz Club in Rome and the Municipality of Montalcino. 

Hosting the opening concert is the evocative Fortezza di Montalcino, which becomes the stage for STEFANO BOLLANI Trio. The versatile pianist, eclectic artist and genius returns to Jazz & Wine after 13 years of absence in the company of Bernardo Guerra on drums and Gabriele Evangelista on double bass. Together they will give life to a unique concert where the only rule is to have fun improvising. A journey that embraces all music, that knows no genres or superstructures, in which the three instruments come together to create a new and extraordinary musical world each evening.

The programme of Jazz & Wine 2021

The festival, whose artistic direction is signed by Paolo Rubei (Alexanderplatz Jazz Club in Rome), then continues until 25 July with other sensational musicians showcasing the best of Italian genius.

On Wednesday 21 July, Jazz & Wine moves to Castello Banfi: starring STEFANO DI BATTISTA with his "Morricone Stories", a heartfelt tribute to Ennio Morricone, one of the masters who brought Italian genius to the world. A project that seals the perfect marriage between jazz and film music and that sees saxophonist Stefano Di Battista joined by pianist Fred Nardin, double bassist Daniele Sorrentino and drummer André Ceccarelli.

Also in the marvellous Banfi Castle will be the appointment on Thursday 22 July with 'Improvvisazione di piano solo', the show in which DANILO REA, one of Italy's greatest pianists, will range from the cornerstones of jazz, through Italian songs, to opera arias, projecting the audience into a world whose paths are yet to be discovered.

Swing, swing and more swing: EMANUELE URSO, the 'King of Swing' with the SESTETTO SWING DI ROMA (Emanuele Urso, clarinet/drums/direction; Claudio Piselli, vibraphone; Emanuele Rizzo, piano; Fabrizio Guarino, guitar; Alessio Urso, double bass; Giovanni Cicchirillo, drums) will arrive at the Montalcino Fortress on Friday 23 July. A journey that starts with the American sounds of the 1940s and arrives at the major composers of American pop music (G. Gershwin, J. Kern, C. Porter, I. Berlin, B. Goodman) and that benefits from the presence of an exceptional special guest LORENZO SORIANO(trumpet).

The combination of music and cinema will be the protagonist of the event on Saturday 24 July, when, on the stage of the Montalcino Fortress, the OBSERVATORIUM ORCHESTRA composed of some of the best Italian jazz musicians and conducted by MASSIMO NUNZI (trumpet, conducting and arrangements) will propose "Jazz in Cinemascope", a concert that will explore the scores of some very famous films, allowing the audience to listen to music of great complexity, rarely performed.

The 24th edition of Jazz & Wine in Montalcino closes on Sunday 25 July with the guitar of ALEX BRITTI, who will bring his extraordinary talent to the Montalcino Fortress in a show that will revisit his repertoire in a more intimate, elegant and pressing key at the same time. With him on stage FLAVIO BOLTRO, eclectic and refined trumpeter. A meeting between two complicit and close-knit musicians for a project under the banner of improvisation with a blues and jazz flavour, enriched by the talent of Davide Savarese on drums, Emanuele Brignola on bass and Mario Fanizzi on piano and keyboards.

With the 2016 harvest, Banfi's Brunello di Montalcino family is enriched with a new label, Vigna Marrucheto.

The Banfi estate, which occupies an area of almost 3,000 hectares in a single body, has exceptional variability: vineyards, olive groves, orchards, lush woods, wheat and spelt fields, a true paradise of biodiversity.

And here, on the gentle slopes of the hills, Sangiovese finds its ideal habitat, in a perfect synergy between soil, exposure and man's work, the myth of Brunello di Montalcino is born.

Vigna Marrucheto

The newly born Vigna Marrucheto (12,000 bottles), produced from three parcels of the vineyard of the same name (about 10 hectares), located in the south-eastern area of the estate, is rooted in the numerous studies carried out since the beginning within the Banfi estate, from those on zoning, to clonal selection, to the development of the Banfi Alberello training system. More than forty years of Banfi's experience dedicated to expressing and enhancing the diversity of each terroir on the estate find their fulfilment in the Brunello 'Vigna' project.

Twenty-nine different terroirs were identified thanks to the company's zoning, the primary objective of which was to make the most of each individual area of the estate.

Terroir, a French term that with just one word, tells us that a wine is the child not only of the grapes, but of the environment in which the grapes ripen.

Soil, therefore, but also light, breezes, altitude create in each vineyard a small world totally different from the adjacent one. And the work done in the vineyard continues in the cellar.

Here, the grapes from each individual vineyard are processed separately and the ageing process is also carried out separately, offering the possibility to taste the different peculiarities of each vineyard in the glass.

Wine characteristics

Elegant and refined, in the glass it has an intense ruby red colour.

Endowed with great sensory complexity, in which notes of ripe red plums and white peaches stand out, it has a full, vibrant body, supported by excellent acidity, with silky tannins and a well-balanced, very persistent finish.

Starting in June, the new communication for Centine, one of the most representative wines of Banfi production, will be on air. A strategic project, articulated and full of initiatives, aimed at spreading the value and importance of the Centine brand, relaunching it as an authoritative brand through an innovative and impactful creative concept.

"Centine has contributed to Banfi's history, renewing itself over time and always remaining central to our portfolio, fully expressing the Banfi philosophy: excellent value for money, transversal consumption, omnichannel distribution. This is why we decided to work on a project to relaunch the brand, starting this new path with Mosquito, the communication agency led by Vincenzo Vigo," says Rodolfo Maralli, Banfi's Sales&Marketing Director.

Hundreds' new communication campaign kicks off

The creativity reaffirms, with an original and striking language, both the great versatility and the authentically Tuscan roots of Centine. The bottle bursts across the background of Tuscan landscapes, and on the neck of the bottle we see numerous consumption occasions represented, with different targets each time. The landscapes, realised with a treatment between the photographic and the pictorial, add authority, preciousness and tradition to a wine of noble birth, but within reach of all budgets.

The claim that seals the creativity, 'Stop every moment' summarises Centine's ability to combine with a variety of recipes and make every occasion special, suggesting a less frenetic approach compared to contemporary lifestyles that, often, do not leave enough room for quality time.

The integrated communication campaign includes, in addition to an advertising plan in the main national media, the complete redesign of the Centine website (ribs.wine), a social media strategy, with the creation of dedicated Facebook and Instagram profiles (@CentineOfficial), and the use of branded podcasts.

"We are happy and proud to have been chosen by Banfi as their partner. This is a brand that has demonstrated a vision that is often ahead of its time and has extraordinary potential," says Vincenzo Vigo, creative director of the project and founder of Mosquito. The online creativity and restyling of the site were developed in collaboration with Wacky Weapon, a dynamic Turin-based company.

The fifth edition of the Banfi Sustainability Reportfor the financial year 2020 is finally available as of today.

The leitmotif of this edition is respect. "An important, authentic and emblematic value of our journey, which belongs to us from the very beginning and which tells us of a balanced and productive relationship with the territory that hosts us and of a genuine interaction with the people with with which we collaborate and with the institutions with which we dialogue on a daily basis,' reads the letter from the territory, where the three presidents (Enrico Viglierchio - Banfi S.r.l., Remo Grassi - Banfi Società Agricola S.r.l., Rodolfo Maralli - Fondazione Banfi) introduce the reading of the document.

Banfi and the Sustainability Report 2020

"We decided to publish the 2020 Sustainability Report on the occasion of World Earth Day," says Cristina Mariani-May, CEO of Banfi, "to reinforce the important message we wish to share with the territory, as well as with the entire wine sector. The year 2020, strongly marked by the still ongoing pandemic crisis, has literally disrupted our production processes, our strategies, our business results, our lives. This particularly significant edition sees us proudly reinforce our commitment to sustainable growth. Sustainability is not a trend, nor is it an option'.

The Sustainability Report 2020, for the first time, underwent dilimited assurance in accordance with the ISAE 3000 Revised standard. The audit, entrusted to PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory S.p.A., a leading company operating in the auditing and business consulting sector, certifies the adherence of the document's contents to the guidelines adopted for its drafting and takes the form of document collection activities, interviews with the management responsible for drafting the report, in-depth thematic investigations, checks on the calculations made and sample checks.

On Sustainability Report 2020 is available on Banfi's website, at the following link:

https://www.www.banfi.it/it/sostenibilita/

Traversa dei Monti is the new Banfi signature wine, a Chianti DOCG with a Montalcino soul.

Made entirely from the traditional Chianti varieties, with a strong predominance of Sangiovese, from the estate's Montalcino vineyards, the heart of the traditional Chianti territory, it boasts the sub-zone COLLI SENESI.

Traversa dei Monti, the new Chianti Colli Senesi by Banfi

The name of the wine, Traversa dei Montiimmediately leads us back to the road that connects Montalcino to the Maremma coast, also skirting the Banfi vineyards.

Even the label is evocative of the place where the wine is born. The Traversa dei Monti, in gold foil, traverses the vineyards that give the perception of earth to the touch, enhancing the luminosity and richness of our territory.

Elegant and assertive, the wine has a deep, intense mauve red colour. The nose is complex and intense, with aromas of ripe fruit and morello cherry accompanied by hints of dried flowers and spicy notes. Enveloping, soft and powerful, with a remarkable structure, it closes with a long and persistent finish.