" Vigna Villa della Regina" 2016 , Freisa di Chieri DOC Superiore produced in the Turin vineyard which in recent months has received authoritative awards from the main Italian guides in the sector and "La Dama di Milano ", made with the same Malvasia di Candia Aromatica that Leonardo Da Vinci cultivated in his vineyard in Milan, will be on sale together in the personalized limited edition box (150 copies) that can be purchased from the website shop.balbiano.com and, as soon as it reopens, inside the Leonardo's Vineyard Museum in Milan (Corso Magenta 65, for information write to info@vignadileonardo.com).
The original collaboration came to life within the Urban Vineyards Association , the international association founded in 2019 to enhance the city vineyards located throughout Europe: an opportunity to promote the heritage of the UVA in an increasingly effective and innovative way. The " La Dama e la Regina " box set contains unique wines that testify to two equally ambitious projects. The urban vineyard of Turin, set in the Turin hills, came back to life at the beginning of the 2000s after decades in a complete state of abandonment while in Milan, through genetic studies carried out by the team of the University of Milan on the shoots found in the Vigna di Leonardo, the DNA of the Genio vine has been rediscovered.
The combination arises from the desire to highlight the " pink " thread that links the two wines to women who have been key characters in the story. " Vigna Villa della Regina ", produced by the Balbiano company, was born in the seventeenth-century vineyard of Villa della Regina - today Unesco heritage - the summer residence of some Savoy queens during the eighteenth century: the name of the house testifies, in fact, the key role that the female figure covered in the Piedmontese kingdom, deeply influenced by figures such as Anna Maria d'Orleans or Christina of Bourbon France. " La Dama di Milano " instead tells another incredible story linked to the deeds of the greatest Italian genius, Leonardo Da Vinci who, at the end of the fifteenth century, moved to Milan at the Casa degli Atellani, a fifteenth-century residence with a vine garden given to him by Ludovico il Moro as payment for the Last Supper. Precisely in honor of the famous Moor's lover, Cecilia Gallerani, Leonardo created the famous portrait "The Lady with an Ermine", a masterpiece of female portraiture that today lends its name to the wine made from the same grape that Leonardo cultivated in his Milan vineyard.
" With Alessandro Cotroneo, director of the Vigna di Leonardo, we thought it would be wonderful to combine the story of these two wines that represent a real uniqueness on the Italian scene, not only for the organoleptic qualities but also for the extraordinary historical events of which they become witnesses - comments Luca Balbiano - The Dama and the Queen are the result of two major recovery projects that have allowed the restitution of a heritage that is not only wine but above all cultural. And this is precisely the main goal that we want to pursue with the UVA: an enhancement of art and culture closely linked with urban viticulture ".
