FEDRA: the wine that is intimately linked with art
Fedra, Rosso di Toscana IGT, comes from the vineyards of Grignano, the historic estate on the hills near Florence, in the heart of the Chianti Rufina zone. The wine’s short name incorporates a whole host of stories of enology and art, two worlds that are increasingly close and in which perfection lies in the most authentic interpretation possible of the subject by people, those who lie behind these two worlds.
It is Tommaso Inghirami, the owner of the company, who has united these two different spheres by dreaming up the Fedra “artistic project”. But Tommaso Inghirami is also the name of the Italian scholar and humanist who lived between 1470 and 1516 and “discovered” Raphael, who in fact painted a famous portrait of him.
One day, Inghirami the intellectual – professor of rhetoric at the Roman Academy, famed for his qualities of persuasion, expressed through “the art of words” – performed a Greek tragedy and acted with such passion and involvement that he totally conquered his large audience, who gave him the nickname of the protagonist of that play: Fedra (Phaedra).
So, it was to him, 400 years after his death, that his young descendant Tommaso decided to dedicate a wine, beginning to prepare for it in 2016. After three years of intense work on the project, the first vintage – 2019 – has now been released, as Tommaso considers it to be worthy of representing this important figure who contributed so much to Italian culture.
This vintage in fact succeeds in giving expression to the typical qualities of the zone in a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon: silky tannins and an enveloping cloak of red fruits, given added length by marked acidity, are factors that make us look forward to a wine for very long aging, a collectors’ wine. Produced in just over 1200 bottles, it will be divided up into 400 cases of three bottles each, plus 100 magnums in wooden cases.
Tommaso has also made the connection with art, which his ancestor loved so much, relive in the packaging of this wine. Each case, made exclusively of wood, will in fact contain a signed and numbered silkscreen print, also presented on the specially designed label which this year is a
work by the artist Franco Alessandrini, who left Italy in 1967 for America, where he acquired international fame.
More specifically, the protagonists of the 2019 Fedra’s label are jazz musicians, who seem to be dancing on the print on the bottle. Vivid and seductive, they tell us a story: that of the extraordinarily talented Alessandrini who, in the U.S.A., found himself immersed in a new, colorful atmosphere, rich in musical tradition in the city of New Orleans, the cradle of jazz.
The original work will be presented by the artist himself during the event organized by Tommaso Inghirami on 2nd February 2024 at Palazzo Acerbi in Milan.
«The story of our Fedra wine» says Tommaso Inghirami «could not but begin with Franco Alessandrini, an artist who encapsulates many moods, traditions and cultures, all of which are however linked to his deep roots in Sansepolcro, just as we are too. Also, I find the versatility of this artist – who expresses himself in lots of different styles – extremely appealing. He is a truly avant-garde interpreter of our times».
Many art critics have tried to label Franco Alessandrini as a neo futurist, neo cubist, or neo surrealist. But the artist has never recognized himself as belonging to any precise movement and – though attracted by various technical and artistic ideas – he has always given expression to his own personal, poetic style, guided by the ever-present inspiration of Piero della Francesca. Barbara Nauer, the famous American art critic, has coined for him the term “vibrasive”, because of the multiple views of his subjects, which the artist uses to make us hear music and see movement in a visual manner.
Tommaso Inghirami is thus bringing full circle to a tribute to his history and that of his family, which for over 70 years has flown the flag of Italian quality with the historic Ingram shirt brand, founded by his grandfather Fabio Inghirami. This, then, was the source of his love for art, which took the form first of all in the field of fashion, the environment in which Tommaso grew up – since childhood, he has collected historic sewing machines as a sign of his attachment to this milieu – and now in wine.
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