“The future belongs to those who started it. The future starts today”: this is how Ruffino announces the new course taken with the official debut of the restyled label of one of the company’s iconic wines, Chianti Classico Riserva Ducale Oro Gran Selezione, which represents the beginning of a broader path of innovation.
Ruffino’s Illustrious Story
“Having a glorious past behind us should not be a constraint, but rather an opportunity,” explains Sandro Sartor, president and CEO of Ruffino. “Our immense historical heritage must serve to project us into the future, which is why we have decided to make it more contemporary while keeping the product the same, indeed, improving it more and more. For a wine to remain the same, meaning in this case one of the greatest selections of Chianti Classico, it must know how to change.”
If the creation of Chianti Stravecchio at the beginning of the last century enabled the winery founded by cousins Ilario and Leopoldo Ruffino to become the official supplier of the Royal House of Savoy, the birth of Riserva Ducale in 1927, and later that of its evolution “Oro” in 1947, allowed the Pontassieve-based winery to preserve and hand down to the present day an important piece of the history of Tuscan and Italian viticulture and oenology.
The Details are in the Label
These are precisely the foundations from which Ruffino’s recent label renewal project originated, which is part of an overall restyling process that also includes the logo.
It all began with Riserva Ducale Oro: the label was revamped while still remaining true to itself, keeping in the foreground the scene evoking the visit to Pontassieve of the Duke of Aosta in 1890. The goal was to create stillness and make the elements visible, crystal clear. The mark also had to have a new position: so the coat of arms, which was there, poetically hidden, was taken up and became the main hero.
Sustainability in Chianti
However, the enhancement of true works of art, such as the Riserva Ducale Oro, is only possible if it is embedded within an approach that allows for the preservation of the environment in which they are born.
“For us, the concept of sustainability means many things,” comments Sandro Sartor again, illustrating some of the salient points that the company addresses within its sustainability journey and that fall within the scope of a broad social responsibility project born in 2018 under the name Ruffino Cares. – Being farmers, the environmental factor is of course very important and on this we feel we are custodians of the land we have at our disposal.”
“Today, 51 percent of Ruffino’s vineyards have completed the conversion path to organic and within two years it will be finally completed covering 100 percent of the vineyard area, Sartor continues. “But that’s not all, Ruffino embraces all aspects of sustainability, in addition to the environmental one also the social and ethical ones that are fundamental to put into practice a truly responsible corporate culture.”