Enzo Tiezzi, the father of Rosso di Montalcino DOC

An interview with those who made history and believed in the region.

“We were pioneers; Rosso di Montalcino was truly something new,” recalls Enzo Tiezzi, former president of the Consortium and, in some respects, the “spiritual father” of today’s Rosso, as he looks back 40 years. “Since there wasn’t enough time to print the first labels, a decree was issued allowing us to print them ourselves. We reported to the Ministry and the Wine Committee, and they asked us: ‘But do you want the Brunello DOCG and the Rosso DOC, with the same vineyard, and how will you monitor that?’ What’s happening now with Valoritalia, we were already doing back then—with inspections, sample analyses… All we did was formalize it through regulation.” It was not always an easy journey, fraught with unforeseen events and some risks, as Tiezzi reiterates, recalling the time the Ministry threatened to send him to prison.”