In the year of celebrations of the Genius, Leonardo da Vinci S.p.A. presents at the Milan Wine Week “Leonardo Genio del Vino”, an extensive cultural project that sheds light on a little-known aspect of Leonardo’s personality, from his work as an expert oenologist up to the production of wine collections inspired by him.
Milan Wine Week, the event from the 6th to the 13th October 2019 that celebrates Italian wine excellence, will be the setting for discussing the important research, investigation and analysis work at the base of the project, born from the discovery of an unpublished side of Leonardo as a wine-lover and winemaker. Leonardo had an authentic and daily relationship with wine and from observation and respect for nature he had intuited a series of good practices to be able to obtain a wine without defects.
Leonardo da Vinci SpA has dedicated itself to the recovery of the genius’s contribution to the world of wine, through the involvement of a group of experts such as Alessandro Vezzosi, an important Leonardo Da Vinci scholar, who has combed Leonardian literature to deduce his relationship with nature, agriculture and the world of wine, and Luca Maroni, sensory analyst, who translated Leonardo’s indications into a method to refer to today’s techniques.
A testament to Leonardo’s unknown side, his brilliance in wine, is the letter sent in 1515 by the Genius to his farmer from Fiesole: it is here that Leonardo’s methodological observations are found, vinification techniques that are taken for granted today, but that for the era were pioneering – such as maximizing the quality of the grapes, fertilizing the vine with basic substances, and optimizing the oenological transformation through fermentation in closed barrels and frequent racking.
These indications have been taken as guidelines by the technical, agronomic and oenological staff of Leonardo da Vinci S.p.A. for the definition of the Metodo Leonardo® which, thanks to the use of modern vitoenological techniques, allows Leonardo’s objective to be achieved: obtaining first grapes, then excellent quality wines.
The Metodo Leonardo® today is a viticultural and oenological specification – exclusive and secret – of Leonardo da Vinci S.p.A. who shares it with trusted wineries throughout Italy who are committed to adopting it. The best of the production is then given to the Leonardo Da Vinci Spa for its distribution. The application of this method is gathered today in the production of 5 wine collections, representative of Italian wine excellence.
