FABRIZIO BINDOCCI CONFIRMED AS CHAIRMAN OF THE CONSORTIUM OF BRUNELLO DI MONTALCINO WINE
14/06/2013
Patrizio Cencioni, Bernardo Losappio and Francesco Ripaccioli
are the three, newly-elected Chairmen
Focus on the complementarity of large and small winemakers to enhance leverage in Italy and abroad, consolidate the guiding role on the territory to develop the economy of Montalcino, invest in training the young, aim at the diversification of the production zones to better orient the consumer, define an ethical code: these are the focal points of the new mandate.
Montalcino, 13th June 2013 – The Board of Directors has unanimously confirmed Fabrizio Bindocci as Chairman of the Consortium of Brunello di Montalcino wine. Bindocci will remain in office until 2016. The Board has also appointed the three Vice-Chairmen: Patrizio Cencioni, Bernardo Losappio and Francesco Ripaccioli.
Fabrizio Bindocci, 58 years of age, director since 1999 of the Il Poggione wine estate of the Franceschi family (where he has worked since 1976), one of the historical estates of the land of Brunello. Former Vice-Chairman during Filippo Fanti’s first mandate (1998 - 2000), he has held the office of Chairman of the Consortium since June 2012, taking over from Cav. Ezio Rivella.
The newly confirmed Chairman will lead, for three years, an entity that in 2012 produced 9,200,000 bottles of Brunello and 4,500,000 bottles of Rosso di Montalcino, 40,000 bottles of Moscadello and 360,000 bottles of Sant’Antimo (compared with the 340,000 bottles produced in 2011), with a stable export share of 65%.
Fabrizio Bindocci’s mandate will be characterised by continuity with his previous commitment. As remarked by the Chairman himself in his inaugural speech “this mandate will find its lifeblood in the indissoluble union of winemakers, Consortium and territory. The dimensional dichotomy, according to which the interests of the larger producers are irreparably distant from those of the smaller ones, does not work in Montalcino. Quite the opposite. Indeed, the complementarity between large winemakers, who are amongst the key players within the Italian vine-growing and wine-producing system, and the smaller vine-dressers, who safeguard tradition and the highest standards of artisan winemaking, has made Brunello the great wine it is. On these grounds - adds Bindocci – the Consortium, in addition to its role as “manager of the denomination”, will also be in a position to act as a real ‘territorial development agency’ and ‘energy catalyst’ for both production and promotional efforts. The Consortium of Brunello is destined to act as a synthesiser, where the value of the territorial brand is more readily communicable, thus meeting the requirements of small and large wine estates, as well as responding to the demands that arise from the political and institutional framework. In brief, the new frontier inevitably takes on the character of ‘promotion of the territory’. The Consortium of Brunello di Montalcino Wine will therefore stage a series of ‘out of season’ events and festivals, to liven up the territory also in those periods of the year when the flow of tourists and/or wine enthusiasts is slower”.
Another important aspect for Bindocci is the training of young winemakers “who will have access to courses designed to enhance their skills and knowledge, in a scenario, the wine scenario, which increasingly tends towards internationalisation and competition. Then there is the novelty of the Consortium members’ ethical code, a sort of self-certification with which those who will freely join this project, will commit to pursuing utmost propriety in relationships with other consortium members, obviously without prejudice to one’s competitive status on the market”.
“Last – concludes Fabrizio Bindocci – but not least, I believe the Consortium has to work with a renewed commitment in order to commence a project for the diversification of the zones, which does not entail the creation of a qualitative hierarchy of the good and not-as-good Brunello wines, but of a sort of orientation chart for customers and/or wine enthusiasts. This is something the market is already requesting and, to a certain extent, already tracing. The character of the Brunello production territory is not one, monolithic and the same”.