After I bought the Castellare in the late 70s, I soon realized that no two vintages are the same. This is due not only to the weather, the sun and the rain that do have a lasting effect on them, but above all to that overwhelming feeling depending on whether the whole year, not just the last days, was good, bad or ordinary.
This difference in the state of mind, varying from great joy to disappointment, is always evident on the faces of those who are responsible for the vintage, as well on the faces of grape-gatherers, people coming from university lecture halls, unemployment lines or simply pensioners looking for 15 unusual days. Like at a performance of a Greek tragedy, they too immediately settle into their role and the overall atmosphere. Touring the vineyards of Chianti, Piedmont, Bordeaux and the Napa Valley hoping to learn something new, I soon realized that this changing mood and mask on the faces of those who take part in the grape harvesting ritual is a widspread phenomenon found throughout the world that depends on how the various factors affecting production combine. Everything will be summarized in the value that wine industry people attribute to that vintage. From this fundamental but valuavle discovery of mine I got the idea to have every vintage portrayed through the camera lens of a different photographer.
The idea was a great name for each year, a great promise for each year. The first year, 1988, an execellent year full of excitement, was the year of Giuseppe Pino, a master portrait photographer who has captured the essence of the great personalities of jass, art, fashion, design and industry. It was easy for me to choose him. Since the time we had worked together at Panorama (and then at other publications) we were fortunate to tour these wine-growing regions together for a week. He was looking for a strong image for the cover inquiry story on the farm workers’ demaonstration: “Green rage”, as it was entitled and I had come to witness that rage. It was one fo Panorama’s best inquiry stories, not only for the articles but for the pictures that Giuseppe managed to take from the apparent peace of Chianti oxen ploughing a vineyard, to faces that only in this corner of the world traditionally engaged in sharecropping can simultaneously show anger and respect for ther employer.
After Pino came seven others, all of whom, as youcan see, are extraordinarily good. This is not because of the extraordinary faces (Massimo Pacifico, Fred Marcarini and Wowe) and landscapes (Fulvio Roiter), the close-up of the shears cutting off bunches of grapes or the muddy shoes (Fabio Mantovan and Stefano Bozzani), the two hands reaching for a bunch of grapes ready to come off the grape-stalk (Franco Fontana), but because each one of them has captured so many fleeting moments reflecting the different feelings of every vintage. I believe the resulting portrait has rare effectiveness, not only of Castellare, but of one of the most magical seasons in man’s life that has always been the same, or almost, for thousands of years, as old as wine itself. “Apart from recent discoveries, there must be a reason why wine has been at the centre of man’s life, even before Christ”, a good, young Milanese cardiologist used to say, talking about how good two glasses ofred wine a day are for our system. The reason, or reasons, or at least most of them can be found, each with its own interpretation, on the faces, in the gestures, in the implements, in the sky, in the colours, and in the random or planned geometric patterns of the vineyards in this portrait of Castellare’s vintages. We take great pleasure in offering it to wine lovers and those who drink it appreciating the vine’s deep roots in a unique part of humanity.