R
Roots
Ronchi di Castelluccio is the first quality experience in Romagna: a visionary project created by its founder, intellectual and film director Gian Vittorio Baldi. In 1974, he imagined he could make an ambitious and local winery on the cold, Modigliana wooded slopes. Following several pilgrimages to the sacred lands in the great French Crus and after in-depth zoning research in the best Italian areas suited to viticulture, he created “Ronchi di Castelluccio” and its wines, conceived as genuine artistic products. Among a few to share and encourage Baldi’s vision, Luigi Veronelli is unforgettable. He eventually became a very good friend, believing, like him, that land inner vocation should be expressed through zoning.
These visionary intuitions, that consecrated the Ronchi di Castelluccio among the great Italian wines between the 1970s and the 1990s, are the grounds for the relaunching project by the Rametta brothers. They have been at the head of the company since 2020, and they have chosen to return to vinify each ronco (piece of land) individually, as originally it was the case.
“I was looking for an area of great beauty, which historically had a presence of vines and which was neither too close to the sea nor too far away’’.
‘’There is no future without respect for history: we will be brave and let ourselves be driven by dreams and emotions.’’
Aldo e Paolo Rametta
Two brothers have always been passionate about the environment, wine and their Romagna origins. Born in New Orleans and grown up between the United States and Switzerland, they have spent most of their lives abroad where, after finishing their studies, they pursue their professional careers. Skilled in evolving passions into opportunities for growth, concerning the environment, for example, they became entrepreneurs in renewable energy. In 2020, they took advantage of setting up a second major business where they could fulfil their dream of working together: the purchase of the Ronchi Castelluccio estate on the Modigliana hills in the district of Forlì-Cesena. This winery, founded in the 1970s, changed Romagna wine’s identity forever.
Rametta brothers’ aim is, with the help of a passionate professional team, who joined the project at the beginning, to revive the Italian winemaking tradition, taking up this challenge with courage and innovative soul.
C
Fabio Castellucci
Born in 1980, at the age of twenty he began a career as a restaurateur in his native Romagna, in Santa Sofia.
After spending time in the dining room and kitchen, his great passion for wine developed to the point of gaining a professional Sommelier Diploma in 2003.
After 15 years as a restaurateur, he started a second career in the wine field, first as a business manager in a winery in Romagna, then, moving to England where he spent two years collaborating with Old Food Market and the well-known sommelier Andrea Rinaldi. Back in Romagna, since 2020 he has been Ronchi di Castelluccio’s commercial director as well as local and international ambassador.
B
by Francesco Bordini
As an agronomist and as a professional researcher, he has always committed his life to the growing of vineyards and the production of native wines with autochtonous vocation. Thanks to his studies and experiences, often, alongside great winegrowing technicians and artisans, he has specialised in meticulous reading and parcelling out lands and their vineyards. He paid specific attention to Romagna, where he was born, and to Sangiovese, its main vine, with a strong belief that ʻʼRomagna is a generous land, rich in pearls, great crus and skilled craftsmen. ʼʼ
Over the years, he has refined his working methods, with a preference for organic and sustainable approaches, changing his commitment to an “unseen hand” that leads all the choices of the countryside and the winery, to achieve winemakers’ ambitions and place’s potentiality.
Since 2020, he has started supporting the Rametta brothers showing knowledge and enthusiasm for the project involving the revival of Ronchi di Castelluccio, honoring his father’s legacy, the well-known agronomist Remigio Bordini, who played a key role in the Gian Vittorio Baldi’s dreaming of success in 1975.
F
Enological Philosophy
In the Ronchi di Castelluccio vineyards, different land parcels belong to wine cuttings of various clones by Sangiovese, Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon, more suitable for qualitative yields, has already happened in France since the 1800s: in Castelluccio, the crus become the Ronchi.
The vineyard plants are among guyot, spurred cordon and sapling, the last one very low to survive the low temperatures by acquiring heat from the soil, trained exclusively with manual and artisan care. Grassing, hand-worked vineyards, exclusively organic fertilisations and measured treatments only based on copper and sulphur. These attentions translate into minimal yields: 20/25 quintals for the reds, depending on the vintage, and up to 12 quintals for the Sauvignon Blanc by Ronco del Re.
The same principles apply either to the winery or to the countryside: we proceed with separate micro-vinifications, fermented in steel or large oak vats. For the refinement, less invasive toasted oak barriques are used, coming from the forests of Allier, Vosges and Tronçais. From barrique cellars, it goes back to bottles for further refinement until it reaches the right tension to stand the test of time.
