San Felice, an established wine and hotel company of the Allianz Group, and Thomas Duclos, a renowned French winemaker, are launching their partnership. With this new collaboration, the Tuscan Group aims to consolidate its commitment to producing authentic, territorial wines with great stylistic precision, continuing to be a benchmark of contemporary excellence in the international winemaking scene.
Who is Thomas Duclos: the French winemaker at the heart of the new partnership
Thomas Duclos, associated since 2011 with the Oenoteam laboratory based in Libourne (France), is one of the most authoritative voices of the new French winemaking generation, boasting collaborations with numerous prestigious estates such as Château Canon, Château Troplong Mondot, Franc Mayne, Beau-Séjour Bécot and Château Giscours.
“San Felice has chosen Thomas Duclos as its winemaking consultant. Known for his disciplined approach focused on purity, balance and elegance, Duclos will support and train the winemaking teams of the three estates (San Felice (Chianti Classico), Campogiovanni (Montalcino) and Bell’Aja (Bolgheri)), helping to innovate and strengthen our skills, to enhance the specificities of each territory, to bring our wines to an even higher level of recognisability and personality” says Mario Cuccia, President of San Felice.
Innovative strategy: how the French winemaker will help in the vineyard and cellar San Felice
San Felice has always boasted a tradition of high oenological expertise. The world of wine, exposed to marked climate change, but also to a constant evolution in consumer tastes, requires maximum attention in understanding how to manage the work in the fields and in the cellar. Cuccia continues: “Given the complexities to be faced, doing it alone would have limited the skills of our team, the ambitions of the company, ultimately, in the future, the quality of our wine. For this reason we turned to a French professional of unquestionable level”.
Carlo De Biasi, General Manager of San Felice, adds: “To face the challenges that await us, we must evolve in the vineyards, in the cellar and in the organization. The human factor comes first for us, the team is crucial to create the vineyard, the wine and the brand in order to enhance it. These very complex stages also require the support of a new point of view that becomes part of our team. Thomas Duclos represents the perfect synthesis between the external vision and the respect for our identity: an ideal ally for a project that will accompany us along this path with the aspiration of always striving for the best, driven by an instinctive search for excellence and the desire to constantly raise the bar, while remaining authentic.”
Thomas Duclos’s point of view: a mosaic of Italian terroirs
After the first visits to the estates, Thomas Duclos expressed his first considerations, thus maturing the decision of the partnership: “San Felice: a mosaic of soil and exposure to express the spirit of contemporary Chianti Classico. Campogiovanni: the power of a historic place enhanced by a 21st century vision. Bell’Aja: the fine and precise interpretation of a wild and sunny terroir”.
Speaking of himself, Duclos describes himself as: “a hard worker and very attentive to human relationships: the Oenoteam team is proof of this. This broad vision is essential in everyday life. It is essential to integrate into the company teams to produce precise wines in terms of balance and elegance. Our job is to reveal a terroir without exaggerating. Each wine must have its own personality.”
