October 29, 2013
A Note from Sergio
Cupano's Ornella Tondini and Lionello Cousin make you feel as if anything is possible. They're people who have lived exciting lives packed full of adventure, risk, art, love, animals, travel--and wine. Ornella, a trained art historian, has worked in museums in Rome, run magazines in London, and raised children in Tuscan sixteenth-century villas without electricity or running water. Lionello, a documentary filmmaker born in France, has traveled the world from the North to the South Poles, from the Sudan to South America. Together, they settled in Montalcino, and together they make the best wine you've never heard of.
I moved back to Italy about three years ago, and over the past three years, my networks here have deepened. Traveling and tasting, I kept on hearing one name over and over again. "Cupano," the young Italian sommeliers kept saying, and I started drinking. Then I visited the estate, which perches on a hill a few kilometers from the Sesti's Castello di Argiano and from the sprawling Banfi estate. Set apart from other vineyards, Cupano has no arable land that touches anyone else's vineyard or farm; this means that the estate is one of the very few certified organic estates in Montalcino, but this status isn't the only thing that makes the wine special.
Visiting Cupano, being welcomed like family by Ornella and Lionello, touring the vineyards, I was struck by the vineyards. The vines were old, gnarled and thriving in that stressed way that only the best wine vines are. They were also meticulously kept. Lionello famously walks through the vineyard, trimming leaves and bunches with manicure scissors he keeps in his pocket--but it was more than that. Walking around, I saw the stony ground. Eons ago a river had run through this land, leaving rocks, pebbles and stones in its path. This rockiness would imbue minerality in Cupano's wines, but it also gave these vines perfect drainage. The vines were naturally, perfectly stressed, and the God-given terroir meant that these vines would be naturally healthy, naturally resistant to pests and disease. It was ideal, really.
Today, I'm proud to bring a wide selection of Cupano's wines to you, my clients. These wines are already superstars in the Italian market, and they're poised to be superstars in the American market. Many of the wines in this offer appear for the very first time in the States; my close relationship with Ornella and Lionello make this possible. I believe in Cupano's beautifully structured, wonderfully complex wines. Cupano's Brunello di Montalcino is a wine I've fallen in love with, and the estate's rare Montalcino Super Tuscan, Ombrone Saint'Antimo, drinks like the union of Ornella and Lionello--the perfect marriage of Italian earth and French aesthetics.
IWM's opinion is that Cupano is the new top player in Montalcino. These are beautiful wines made by beautiful people, and you are the ideal wine-lovers to appreciate them. Drink some Cupano, fall in love. I did.
A Note from Sergio
Cupano's Ornella Tondini and Lionello Cousin make you feel as if anything is possible. They're people who have lived exciting lives packed full of adventure, risk, art, love, animals, travel--and wine. Ornella, a trained art historian, has worked in museums in Rome, run magazines in London, and raised children in Tuscan sixteenth-century villas without electricity or running water. Lionello, a documentary filmmaker born in France, has traveled the world from the North to the South Poles, from the Sudan to South America. Together, they settled in Montalcino, and together they make the best wine you've never heard of.
I moved back to Italy about three years ago, and over the past three years, my networks here have deepened. Traveling and tasting, I kept on hearing one name over and over again. "Cupano," the young Italian sommeliers kept saying, and I started drinking. Then I visited the estate, which perches on a hill a few kilometers from the Sesti's Castello di Argiano and from the sprawling Banfi estate. Set apart from other vineyards, Cupano has no arable land that touches anyone else's vineyard or farm; this means that the estate is one of the very few certified organic estates in Montalcino, but this status isn't the only thing that makes the wine special.
Visiting Cupano, being welcomed like family by Ornella and Lionello, touring the vineyards, I was struck by the vineyards. The vines were old, gnarled and thriving in that stressed way that only the best wine vines are. They were also meticulously kept. Lionello famously walks through the vineyard, trimming leaves and bunches with manicure scissors he keeps in his pocket--but it was more than that. Walking around, I saw the stony ground. Eons ago a river had run through this land, leaving rocks, pebbles and stones in its path. This rockiness would imbue minerality in Cupano's wines, but it also gave these vines perfect drainage. The vines were naturally, perfectly stressed, and the God-given terroir meant that these vines would be naturally healthy, naturally resistant to pests and disease. It was ideal, really.
Today, I'm proud to bring a wide selection of Cupano's wines to you, my clients. These wines are already superstars in the Italian market, and they're poised to be superstars in the American market. Many of the wines in this offer appear for the very first time in the States; my close relationship with Ornella and Lionello make this possible. I believe in Cupano's beautifully structured, wonderfully complex wines. Cupano's Brunello di Montalcino is a wine I've fallen in love with, and the estate's rare Montalcino Super Tuscan, Ombrone Saint'Antimo, drinks like the union of Ornella and Lionello--the perfect marriage of Italian earth and French aesthetics.
IWM's opinion is that Cupano is the new top player in Montalcino. These are beautiful wines made by beautiful people, and you are the ideal wine-lovers to appreciate them. Drink some Cupano, fall in love. I did.
