The phone rings. On the other end is Eugenio Campolmi, of Macchiole. "Enio, we are thinking of creating a DOC for Bolgheri. You have to be there." Enio, bewildered, felt he did not yet have such advanced knowledge. But it was a historic moment and he certainly could not back down. Once a week, for about twelve months, eight producers-practically 95 percent of those making wine in the area-were meeting: Incisa della Rocchetta, Meletti Cavallari, Satta, Pavoletti, Gasser, Campolmi, Antinori, Frollani. In those meetings there was an air of complicity, enthusiasm and a contagious frenzy to create something great. Together they discussed everything: which clones to choose, which rootstocks to use, planting density, yields per hectare. They were thinking not just about themselves, but about the whole territory. They wanted to lay a solid foundation on which anyone in the future could build. And perhaps, it was that simplicity, made up of few rules and few laws, combined with the generosity and vision of a handful of decent people, that made the unthinkable possible.
On December 14, 1995, with a gesture as simple as it was historic, they officially founded the Bolgheri DOC Consortium. That day they unknowingly changed the destiny of a land that would shortly thereafter become one of the capitals of great Italian wine.
