Banfi was founded in 1978 thanks to the will of the Italian-American brothers, John and Harry Mariani. From the beginning, the goal of the two brothers was to create a state-of-the-art winery combined with the most advanced science in the vineyards for the production of premium wines. Together with the Mariani family, Ezio Rivella, one of Italy's foremost enologists, who understood that due to the richness of the soils and the privileged microclimatic position, the property would have great capacity of development. In those years, the brothers, John and Harry, also purchased Bruzzone, a historic winery in Piedmont. Founded in 1860 and specialized in the production of sparkling wines, today is known as Banfi Piemonte. The winery has been designed to protect the integrity and richness of the grape, the winery employs state of the art technology, the result of revolutionary technical research and innovation. And in this same philosophy, based on continual research, that a number of projects came to be on our estate, including the clonal study of Sangiovese, research on the composition and aging of wood for barrels – the great protagonist of aging wine – and the completion of our “Horizon” microvinification area, creating a winery within a winery. This project, entirely conceived and developed by and at Banfi, is made up of a series of expedient high level solutions undertaken to improve upon each phase of winemaking. The tremendous undertaking for vinification is followed by a long silent rest in wood, where the great wines of Banfi, principally reds, evolve over the passage of time and refine their most distinctive characteristics of strength, elegance and longevity. More than 7000 customized barrels, laid out in orderly rows, and large casks make up the heart of Banfi, which beats in the silent and peaceful ambience surrounding our winery.