«I saw four large amphorae used in the production of wine – they directed my thoughts to antiquity, as ancient as wine culture is», Pietro Ruffo about his collaboration with Feudi di San Gregorio
A wine-growing company in southern Italy
Founded in 1986, Feudi di San Gregorio is the winery that for thirty years has been enhancing the autochthonous vines of the Campania tradition such as Greco, Fiano and Aglianico, applying research and study to an area, Irpinia, vocated to the cultivation of vines of the highest quality.
Feudi now works on 300 hectares of vineyards divided into more than 800 plots. They differ from each other in altitude, exposure and slope. The winery has studied them individually to enhance the bio-diversity of the land and give life to crus.
It is the leading winery in southern Italy. It has a turnover of more than 30 million and exports covering more than 50 countries worldwide. This experience has led the Capaldo family to explore the winemaking potential of other regions of Italy. Thus, alongside Feudi, the Tenute Capaldoproject was born, encompassing a group of wineries that share the same founding values of long-term vision, adherence to the territory, culture and respect for the consumer. The following are part of this group: DUBL, the Campania classic method spumante; Campo alle Comete, a Tuscan bastion in Bolgheri; Basilisco, an organic winery in Vulture; Sirch, in Colli Orientali del Friuli.
All are united by the same values: to produce wines of excellent quality while respecting their territory.
From 10 May 2021, Feudi di San Gregorio also became a Benefit Company, amending its Articles of Association to confirm its commitment to Irpinia and to a sustainable business model. In August it became Equalitas certified and from June 2022 it is B Corp.
The cultural vocation of Feudi di San Gregorio is renewed through Pietro Ruffo’s art
In line with its commitment to sustainable action, aimed at preserving the beauty of the territory and its traditions, the heart of the winery’s benefit society and B Corp programme, Feudi di San Gregorio presents Il Canto della Terra, a site-specific work by artist Pietro Ruffo, which will enrich the Irpinian winery’s art collection.
After the interventions of photographer Mimmo Jodice in 2014, the artist duo Vedovamazzei in 2016 and Marinella Senatore in 2018, Pietro Ruffo, has chosen to narrate the cycle of the life of wine on the surface of an amphora, used since ancient times for ageing wine. As part of this commitment, the company, since 2014, has involved contemporary artists in the creation of site-specific works, captured in limited edition labels, the proceeds of which are donated in full to finance the Foundation’s projects. The tale of cellar operations thus merges with the community that animates it and the territory that hosts it, Irpinia, cradle of wine and food knowledge and culture.
The work, born out of a relationship of collaboration and esteem with the Roman artist and installed in the amphitheatre in front of the winery, was inaugurated on 15 September, as part of a lively debate on the role of art and culture as levers for the promotion of the sustainable development of territories and the generation of shared value.
The initiative was created in collaboration with the Fondazione di Comunità San Gennaro – of which Feudi has been a founding partner since 2014 – animated by Father Loffredo and committed to overcoming youth social discomfort through the enhancement of the historical-artistic heritage and human capital of the Rione Sanità in Naples.
Between art and craft: Pietro Ruffo’s work Il Canto della Terra
The artist asked a Tuscan craftsman, specifically the Manetti Gusmano’s furnace in Impruneta, to make an amphora to his design, on which he painted the images with a colour that was specially made by Ceramiche Gatti of Faenza, so that – once fired – it would turn red like wine.
According to Pietro Ruffo, «Feudi di San Gregorio has always had a close relationship with artists. They ask us to turn our vision of their world into art. When I visited the winery, I saw four large amphorae used in the production of wine. They immediately directed my thoughts to antiquity, as ancient as wine culture is. In the past, these amphorae were the containers used to transport food from one side of the Mediterranean to the other.
Foodstuffs, such as cereals, and also wine were often stored there. The vessels were often decorated with scenes of everyday life and also became collectors’ items as they narrated how people on the other side of the known world lived. Who they prayed to, what they believed in, how they loved. This is the allegory I used for Il Canto della Terra: creating an amphora that I designed, with the help of Tuscan craftsmen, on which I then drew the activities that take place at Feudi di San Gregorio and that start from the work of the land and follow one another cyclically».
The project Etichette d’artista: limited edition label for the San Gennaro Foundation
Created based on his design and an expression of the artist’s unmistakable style, Il canto della terra will remain accessible to the more than 20,000 visitors who choose to visit the winery each year, underlining Feudi di San Gregorio’s commitment to culture and its community. The artist’s style also clearly returns in the design of the limited edition label for the Fondazione San Gennaro, which this year will enhance 1,998 examples of DUBL +, the Greco-based classic method that the winery has been successfully experimenting with for over 15 years. Pietro Ruffo has therefore chosen to draw inspiration from the CONSTELLATIONS series – watercolours and carvings on canvas paper – in which he superimposes two different maps, one terrestrial and one celestial, with which to investigate the great themes of universal history.
Pietro Ruffo
He is an Italian artist. Ruffo studied architecture at the University of Rome and was awarded a research fellowship at the Italian Academy of Advanced Studies at Columbia University, New York, 2010. Ruffo’s art is linked to the fundamental elements of his training in architecture: the project, drawing on paper.
Along a path of research, Ruffo’s work frees itself without forcing the theoretical dimension and finds synthesis in figurative compositions, made with cuttings and pins of paper, ceramics, tiles or paint, articulated in superimpositions of natural landscapes and human forms, geographical maps and constellations, geometries and traces of writing. The result is a layered work with multiple visual and semantic interpretations, investigating the great themes of universal history. In recent years he has received several public and private commissions, which have led him to extend his work to an urban dimension.
Feudi di San Gregorio
Feudi di San Gregorio, which has been enhancing the local grape varieties of the Campania region (such as Greco, Fiano and Aglianico) for thirty years, is today the leading wine company in southern Italy and an export business covering more than 50 countries worldwide.
