In Greve in Chianti, among the hills that have contributed to making Tuscan wine great in the world, the new Cantina del Cabreo inaugurates a new season of the Ambrogio and Giovanni Folonari Tenute. But the day was above all that of Ambrogio Folonari: 96 years old, a life dedicated to wine, Tuscany and an idea of beauty that comes from the land, work and human relationships.
«Ambrogio and his family believed in this territory and I have to thank them». In the words of the mayor of Greve in Chianti, Paolo Sottani, pronounced during the awarding of honorary citizenship, there was much more than an institutional recognition. There was the sense of a life spent to create value not only economic, but cultural, human and social. A life capable of leaving a mark. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote comes to mind: «The purpose of life is not to be happy. It’s being useful, being honorable, being compassionate, making sure that the fact that you have lived and lived well makes a difference.”
And this is precisely the trait that emerges when observing the history of Folonari: a man capable of looking beyond his own time. Born in Brescia in 1930, but Tuscan by adoption, he arrived in Florence because the family owned Ruffino. He studied Agriculture and stayed here, coming into contact with it generation of extraordinary entrepreneurs who would change the face of Italian wine. The Supertuscan season is born among friendships, intuitions and travels: alongside names like Piero Antinori and Vittorio Frescobaldi, also Ambrogio understands the enormous potential of Sangiovese and international vines.
At the end of the Seventies he travels to Burgundy, to the Côte d’Or, observes, studies, listens. He brings scions of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, pinot noir and chardonnay to Tuscany, sensing that Chianti Classico could communicate with the world without losing its identity. Thus, Cabreo Il Borgo was born in 1982, among the first red Supertuscans in history; in 1983 La Pietra arrived, made from Chardonnay grapes, one of the first great Italian white Supertuscans. A paradigm shift that will contribute to the Renaissance of Tuscan wine.
Today that vision continues in the hands of his son Giovanni Folonari, president of the company founded together with his father in 2000, while Ambrogio is honorary president. There are five family estates and they tell the story of different souls of Tuscany wine. The Tenute del Cabreo and Nozzole estates are located in Greve in Chianti; in Panzano, Casa di Sala. Since 1967 the family has invested here, transforming the territory without distorting it.
The new Cantina del Cabreo was born precisely from this idea: innovation and tradition that speak to each other. An important investment in a complex moment for the wine sector, between duties, wars and health campaigns against wine. «We are in a beautiful area and we must make the most of it», explains Giovanni Folonari. The structure, completely renovated compared to the historic cellar built by the grandfather, combines technology and beauty: satin steel, burnished bronze, hand-worked Impruneta terracotta, Tuscan stone, no detail left to chance. Everything communicates with the landscape.
But Folonari doesn’t just mean wine. It means family. Ambrogio and his wife Giovanna Cornaro passed on to their children Giovanni, Francesca and Angelica a precise idea of work as a responsibility towards the territory. I also bear witness to thischarming elais Borgo del Cabreo and La Pietra, born from the recovery of ancient farmhouses and transformed into places of elegant and authentic hospitality. Not ostentatious luxury, but harmony with the landscape and refined hospitality, in line with the style of his wife Giovanna, who oversaw the renovation.
«Dad was an institutional person, quite rigid in his thoughts but with a big heart, tender beneath the surface», says Giovanni. «He taught me that in life you always have to travel, listen, never think you’ve arrived and above all he left us free to choose: if you don’t love what you do, you can’t be passionate about it». It’s maybe here the secret of the longevity of this wine family: never feeling definitively accomplished, but continuing to search.
And perhaps this is precisely what the honorary citizenship of Greve in Chianti really celebrates: not just the success of an entrepreneur, but the example of an emeritus citizen who, through wine, told the world about a beautiful, cultured and deeply human Tuscany.
