La Maremma e i suoi protagonisti

The portrait opens in the late 1970s, when grape purchases around Montemerano were agreed directly with local growers such as Cignale, Troncausci, Tascapane and Calzafina. These informal relationships belonged to the period just before Morellino di Scansano expanded from a local wine into an international commercial category.

Erik Banti is presented as Danish through his mother and Tuscan through his father, with formative ties to Rome, Montepulciano and Montemerano. Before wine, he excelled at golf, represented Italy as a junior and won national titles. He competed in historic motor races, including the Targa Florio, and won an Italian GT 1300 championship. He then opened a photographic studio in Piazza di Spagna, worked on advertising campaigns, contributed reportage to National Geographic and served as a still photographer for directors including Federico Fellini, Franco Zeffirelli and Mauro Bolognini.

In 1970, he opened a Roman travel agency. Banti Viaggi took Italian tourists to the Maldives in 1972. Five years later, Banti and Stefano Milioni conceived an inbound tourism programme based on Italian food and wine. Luigi Veronelli supported the plan, and an agreement was reached with Alitalia, but the airline’s withdrawal brought the venture to an end and prompted Banti’s departure for Montemerano.

Banti arrived there in 1978, when Morellino di Scansano received DOC recognition. The first official vintage bearing his name followed in 1981, using grapes from the 1.5-hectare Ciabatta holding and neighbouring growers. Veronelli helped connect him with the emerging producers of the denomination. Banti then travelled through Italy to place Morellino in influential wine shops and restaurants, accepting repeated refusals as part of the attempt to establish the category.

In 1994, he transferred from Montemerano to Scansano. The Scansano winery was later comprehensively redesigned with a brick exterior, illuminated dove emblems along its entrance, new offices, a tasting room and terrace, and a California-style wine shop carrying wine, selected artisan foods, publications and branded objects.

The portrait concludes with the purchase and planting of Poggio Maestrino. Sangiovese clones were joined by Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Mourvèdre, Syrah and Zinfandel; Swedish Lapland pine was used for vineyard posts, and yields were kept low in pursuit of quality. The annually changing names Annoprimo, Annosecondo and Annoterzo expressed the idea that no vintage is simply a repeat of the preceding one.