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| Centine, 1995. |
Ornella Tondini and Lionel Cousin moved to Montalcino from Paris with their daughter Orsa during the 90s. Ornella was a journalist at L'Autre Journal, while Lionel worked as filmmaker and director of photography. They already had a strong connection with Montalcino, having spent the most of their summer holidays at Frescobaldi's Il Giardinello hosting many contemporary artists, actors, musicians and writers.
They bought Centine from the owners of Castello Banfi. That land - located south-west of Montalcino, close to the medieval town of Camigliano - had been abandoned for more than 40 years. The soil they found was extremely pure, never touched by chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides or any other form of modern agricultural practice.
Thus Ornella and Lionel chose to plant three hectares of vineyard - 1 hectare of Brunello di Montalcino, 1 hectare of Rosso di Montalcino, 0.6 Cabernet Sauvignon and 0.4 Merlot - around their hill in 1997, starting with an organic by definition certified agriculture. Carlo Ferrini selected the land for the vines and the vine-stocks, the growth system and the height of the plants.
Lionel was born in Cognac but educated to wine in Burgundy, where he met Henri Jayer, whose winemaking philosophy was taken as a reference: few hectares, wine made in the vineyard, limited yields, further selection on the sorting table with removal of any unripe or moldy grapes, autochthonous yeasts, cold maceration on the lees, no filtration, no clarification, French barriques.
Cupano first vintage was the 2000. Since the beginning, Lionel intended to produce wines for aging, in a true French style, seeking for evolution, elegance and complexity. He had some advisors - e.g. the beloved Giulio Gambelli and François Bouchet until their death - but for some years now he has been working on his own, defining himself a vigneron.
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| Centine, 2017 |
The vineyard is 30 km far from the Mediterranean, taking advantage of temperate climate and sea breezes, dominating the Orcia Valley and the Ombrone flowing under the hill. The terroir, made of sandy clay with large substructure of cobble stones, is quite unique in Montalcino. The bed of the Ombrone, as a matter of fact, used to pass on that land, but then the tectonic shift activated by the Mount Amiata, an ancient volcano left of the land, made the hill come up, so the river went down the valley leaving all the sediments behind.
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| Part of the Brunello vineyard |
Ornella and Lionel planted three more hectares in 2013 to face the growing demand, doubling the production from 2018.
