Leonardo Genius of Wine

11 April was the day dedicated to Leonardo Genius of Wine: a full immersion in culture and food, in nature and wine, set in the heart of Vinci, to launch a formidable story.
Meeting at the Teatro della Misericordia in Vinci where Federico Quaranta, accompanied by Ludovica Frasca, presented the project of Leonardo da Vinci Spa and the protagonists of an unprecedented and fascinating account of the less well-known side of the Genius: his passion for wine. The occasion was to present to the public the results of research, enquiry and analysis work, involving a team of Leonardo experts to collect and codify all existing material testifying to Leonardo’s authentic and daily relationship with wine and his studies in agronomy and oenology. Results that Leonardo da Vinci Spa has transformed into: an agronomic and oenological method for producing wine, an in-depth book, an emotive author’s documentary, and two museums in Vinci dedicated to the most contemporary Genius of all times.“2019 is an important year, it is the five-hundredth anniversary of the greatest Genius of all time and we are here to investigate and discover an unprecedented side of Leonardo: Winelover & Winemaker”, opened Federico Quaranta, calling on stage SimonPietro Felice, Chief Executive Officer of Leonardo da Vinci Spa. “We have gathered all Leonardo’s teachings about wine to bring them to light and make them current, and create a wine of which he would be proud – affirmed Felice – Our objective is to tell the whole world the formidable story of Leonardo and wine”. On stage, too, were Leonardo experts and scholars, such as sensory analyst Luca Maroni, who alongside Leonardo da Vinci Spa’s oenologists has refined the Leonardo Method®, which draws from a letter the Genius sent to his farm manager in 1515 with precise instructions on how to obtain a quality wine. The Leonardo Method, as Maroni explained, is today a viticultural and oenological specification – exclusive and secret – with which 5 different wine collections have been produced: Villa Da Vinci, I Capolavori, 1502 Da Vinci In Romagna, Leonardo da Vinci Vitruviano and Geniale. The creation of the Method and its philological foundations were collected by Maroni in the volume: Leonardo da Vinci and wine. “It is a project driven also by the wish to return to Vinci a small part of what Vinci gave to Leonardo” said Felice regarding the reopening of the Museo Ideale Leonardo da Vinci and the realisation of a new Museum dedicated to Leonardo’s relationship with agriculture and wine-growing, the Museo Leonardo and the Renaissance of Wine. A confirmation of the cultural value of the project itself. Both museums are entrusted to the direction of Alessandro Vezzosi, Leonardo scholar, who revealed in advance the contents of the two exhibition spaces that will inaugurate officially on 2 May. Giovanni Storaro and Marco Carosi, producer and director of the documentary Leonardo’s Wine, recounted some curiosities about the filming of the cinematographic work that investigates the Genius’s passion for wine through his life and his masterpieces, from his childhood in Vinci to the celebrated Last Supper to which the maestro Vittorio Storaro has dedicated an illuminated scene. But Leonardo was also attentive to food, the subject of his drawings, rebus and writings. For this reason Chef Cristina Bowerman has devised an unprecedented menu dedicated to Leonardo for the occasion. “I imagined cooking for Leonardo da Vinci. A polyvalent genius, so far ahead of his time that his vision of the world transcended the boundaries of his era. So I conceived a menu that would be a tribute to the Genius of Leonardo and his life. With original, multisensory dishes, where flavours play with forms, technique dialogues with raw materials, science with art and agriculture“.

The day continued at Villa da Vinci, the estate surrounded by vineyards that belonged to Leonardo’s family. There guests tasted the menu created by Bowerman – including mini pastrami sandwiches of calf tongue, spiced sauce and Tuscan salami, new potatoes in ash with Tuscan ham mayonnaise or black garlic gnocchetti, broad beans and candied lemon – And discovered wines inspired by the Genius, obtained according to the Leonardo Method®, at five wine-tasting stations. Inside and outside the Villa, a wine resort with 6 rooms open to wine tourists, eclectic performances of music and dance unfolded throughout the afternoon with the involvement of artists who each returned, with their own personality, one of the aspects of the genius’s creativity: from Roue Cyr’s vitruvian acrobatics to the dancers of the Sonics company and up to Sara Loreni’s loop station. With the launch of the project, the inauguration of the Museums and the opening of Villa da Vinci, a new story about Leonardo begins, which starts from his native city and reaches throughout the world, where for centuries his story never ceases to be always current and captivating.