Wine Amp039Apertaamp039 Between Sustainability, Passion And Art The Story Of Roccafiore's 20 Years

Rome, January 23, 2018 (Labitalia) – Architecture, landscape, oenology, romanticism, territory, and art. "Open" summed up in a single word.

For the 20th anniversary of one of the Group's businesses, Roccafiore, a farm, winery, and resort at the gates of Todi, in the "Strada dei vini del cantico," in honor of San Francesco, who had traced the lines of spirituality in these hills, the Baccarelli family, third-generation Umbrian businesspeople, wanted to publish an acronym that is the title of the book. Early in the 1990s, Leonardo Baccarelli, a businessman in the energy and petroleum products industries who was passionate about art, nature, and "beauty," decided to build his dream here: a winery, resort, and holistic spa where wines could be produced in accordance with the laws of nature and with a strong commitment to sustainability.

Roccafiore is now an established reality that has distinguished itself for the high quality of both the wines produced and the hospitality, 20 years later, thanks to their children Luca and Ilaria. Not only, though.

Roccafiore is an "open" reality: to concepts, inventions, and the arts. This is the outcome of a decision the Baccarelli family made from the start: to create a location that is not only a vacation spot but also a repository for passions, originality, and creativity. The culmination of this vision is presented in the book "Aperta" (Fabrizio Fabri Editore), which was edited by Paolo Nardon (Professor of Art Anthropology at the "Pietro Vannucci" Academy of Fine Arts in Perugia). It describes all the different types of openness that have characterized the business decisions made by the Baccarelli family, which ultimately reflect their way of being.

"This book, according to Leonardo Baccarelli, expresses all the beauty of the Roccafiore project, from the home to the farm to the cellar, and as a result, the joy and love we have felt for this wonderful place. Even though I am a business owner, as I write in the book, I occasionally feel like an artist because everything that surrounds the cellar was designed and built like a work of art: from the basic fields, we built a sizable garden. This makes the investment more important for the land than anything else.

"Those in the area," he emphasizes, "are important investments that are made with the heart, with passion; you have to forget a little bit about the financial part, to think that it is something for those who will come after and for a respect for the environment. I told myself to build something that could go down in history as both beautiful and simple because I have always worked with petroleum products, and I also told myself to do something for the environment.

We have never used irrigation, water, or chemical products; instead, we only use natural fertilizers. This makes the company sustainable and organic, and it is bringing us satisfaction for the products that are being produced. After getting to know the different artists, I always invited them to the cellar for exhibitions, which is when I first developed my passion for contemporary art, according to Leonardo Baccarelli.

Then, in collaboration with Bruno Ceccobelli of "Scrigni d'autore," this concept was developed: from a wine box that had been abandoned but no longer contained any wine, i. e.

the wine bottle, the artists have produced an installation or a piece of art; we have thus given new life to a subject that was previously finished. I have a great relationship with artists and I try to get inside their heads in order to understand how they think, what they want to do, and even how the works themselves are created. I am not an expert in art, but I am a passionate enthusiast, so I am getting closer and closer to it.

After all, making wine and creating art are two interconnected worlds. We often say it, but we actually believe it, that creating wine is an act of art because we take the most basic ingredient from nature and make it into something complex. Additionally, having a cellar in a particular way, acting towards one's collaborators in a way that educates them through knowledge that points us in the direction of what our future will be—a future that is more interesting from an ecological standpoint—are all examples of art.

And upon looking at the cellar, which was constructed in 2005, it is immediately apparent that it was not only intended to serve as a location for production but also as the center of a process in which the intentions from which the production decisions derive and the final product are closely connected, in a positive link between aesthetics and function, art and nature. Given these connections between art and wine, I prefer to think of cellars—not just Roccafiore's, but also many others—as universal spaces where wine-related knowledge and production techniques mingle with local culture, history, and art, in all of its forms, as well as under the influence of the cult of 'beauty.'.

All of this can contribute to the uniqueness of the experience of hospitality in the cellar; this is also openness to others. It would be interesting to arrange exhibitions in the cellar, conferences on art, and tastings to further concretize this relationship between art and wine.

Wine and art enthusiasts alike might find it to be an interesting experience. On the other hand, wine and art are increasingly often complementary interests, according to Luca Baccarelli, who runs the cellar with his sister Ilaria.

As a result, Roccafiore aspires to be seen as more than just a simple vessel, a location for the production and storage of wine. Rather, it wants to be seen as a center for culture and a friendly, multipurpose area that is "open.".