With a small vineyard on the terrace of a “castle” in Italy, Tullio Masoni makes fine wine but doesn’t want customers to drink it.
An entrepreneur, former investment banker, and art collector, Tullio Masoni has built himself the “smallest” vineyard in the world on the terrace of a 16th-century palace in Central center of Reggio Emilia – known as the place where the National Flag of Italy was born. Also from this vineyard, Masoni has made a fine wine, which is sold for an expensive price of 5000 Euro (nearly 117 million VND).
Tullio Masoni .’s rooftop vineyard
“My father was a winemaker,” says Masoni. “I have inherited a real vineyard in the countryside next to Reggio Emilia. But when I looked at my books, I discovered that I spent more money than I earned. So I sold it. However, more than 20 years later I started to regret it and created my own “pocket” vineyard like this.”
At over 18 square meters, Masoni’s vineyard is just enough to supply the grapes for 29 bottles of red wine each year. Each bottle of such wine is sold for 5000 Euro. And especially, instead of distributing to wine shops, they are present at an art gallery called Bonioni Arte, a few blocks from the garden.
Wine bottles are placed at an art gallery instead of a liquor store
Masoni said: “My bottles are a form of artistic expression that goes against the norm. They’re something you can keep in your living room and show your friends that it was made by a lunatic man who built a vineyard on his rooftop.”
This strange connection between wine and art was inspired by a sculpture of grapes growing on a vine by local artist Oscar Accorsi. “My grapes have been a work of art since they were born.” Mason said. Not only that, his entire process of producing a complete bottle of wine is filled with artistic “breath”.
The oak casks used by Masoni are the work of another local artist named Lorenzo Menozzi. He explained that the two barrels represent a man and a woman.
Strange brewing barrel that only Masoni have
Besides, he also asked Giuseppe Camuncoli, the famous Italian cartoonist who penned the Marvel series, to draw a special version of the label for the wine bottles. That’s also why Masoni never wants customers to open their bottles.
The label of the wine was drawn by the comic artist Marvel
According to Masoni, the vines he grows are Sangiovese varieties – the famous grape that makes the name of wine in Italy. They are cared for by Masoni with eggs, bananas, seaweed and nightingale droppings. In addition, in their “diet” there are also the noisy sounds of the town, from quarrels, curses with many different dialects.
“That gives them a distinct advantage over grapes grown on rural farms, which enjoy silence.” Mason said.
When evaluating wine quality, he also rejected traditional methods of assessment because he thought his product was not like other wines.
Sangiovese grape variety
Although the amount of alcohol consumed is not disclosed, most bottles at the Bonioni showroom are used to gift customers with important, valuable items. Currently, there are only 10 vintage bottles left on display from 2019, all products from previous years are out of stock.
When talking about the taste of wine, Masoni shared: “At the first sip you will probably feel confused by its taste. But after a few seconds, everything started to come alive and explode in the mouth, like something new opened up in the mind.”
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