From the Wine Museum to events, but with the past in mind: Siena rediscovers the Italian Enoteca

Founded to “make known, enhance and promote wines and the national wine-growing reality”, as stated in the founding statute of 1960, the history of the Enoteca Italiana of Siena, an institution in one of the great provinces of Italian wine, has experienced great glories and but also dark moments, but now, finally, it is ready to come back to life and write a new page in history with a “rebirth” project (opening scheduled for March 2025) which aims at three synergistic and connected levels of action: starting from the recovery of the roots and relationships with the territory, through the development of a local “hub”, but also with a second level “hub”, national and international, and recovering an “institutional” profile of the Enoteca Italiana Siena . The objective is to return to a “beating heart” dedicated to wine to be developed through a plurality of activities and interventions, even ambitious ones, such as a multimedia and multisensory wine museum, ad hoc photographic installations, the restaurant and, obviously, the ‘wine shop. But with aspects aimed at conferences and a series of events related to wine excellence and beyond. All this after the acquisition of the brand and the assignment of the two bastions of the Medici Fortress, the new Enoteca Italiana Siena (Eis) starts again and does so where it all began, 91 years ago.The administrator of Enoteca Italiana Siena, Elena D’Aquanno, explained that “Enoteca Italiana di Siena is no longer a public body, but a private entity which nevertheless forms part of the historical, cultural and traditional heritage of Siena. We have the duty and the opportunity to play an incisive role again, this time not so much on an official institutional level, but by gaining a role in the field through prestigious collaborations, carving out a profile as a “study center”, training skills, providing a service and useful content for private companies and public structures/bodies. Public purposes with a private approach. Finally Enoteca comes back to life with a project whose basic objective is not to lose the heritage of knowledge and history of Enoteca Italiana and to restore a role of primary importance to Siena and its territory, in the world of wine and Italian agri-food ”. Future plans include creating synergy to open other “branches” in Italy and abroad, but also to become a point of reference, including on the wine tourism front, for local companies.

Focus – What the new Italian Enoteca Siena will be like
For the interventions, it was explained that the rooms of the Medici Fortress of Siena will be used partly for commercial use and partly for social and cultural use. At the same time, it is planned to use the large rooms in the basement of the Bastione San Francesco as a Wine Museum, intended as a multimedia and sensorial journey. For the Bastione San Francesco, the basement level provides for the creation of a Wine Museum with the display of wines from all over the national territory, divided by region and the totems restored to tell the national wine geography. Access to the wine shop is via the monumental staircase and on the ground floor there is a main hall, a restaurant, with seating inside and outside on the terrace, a wine shop, again with outdoor seating, areas of wine display and service rooms for users. Furthermore, temporary photographic and pictorial exhibitions will be exhibited, while for the pre-existing furnishings the wine display has been recovered which tells the story of the first Market Exhibition of Typical Italian Wines in 1933. The displays, appropriately restored, will be arranged in the main corridor which it leads to the wine shop and into an internal room towards the restaurant, thus telling the story of the Fortress’s trade fair function. The Bastione San Filippo will be the soul of the fair/exhibition and eventsthrough temporary and permanent exhibitions that continue the narration of the Sienese identity and its food and wine production but also the exhibition of local craftsmanship in all its forms. From the point of view of the structural interventions, these, it is explained, will be carried out to guarantee accessibility to the spaces for everyone and according to principles of eco-sustainability in the furnishings. Among the events mentioned, the “Wine Week”, in collaboration with “Città del Vino”, events dedicated to the tasting of DOCG, DOC and IGT wines set up in tasting stands; a permanent focus during the event “Tuscany and its wines”; the photographic exhibition “Wine market exhibitions from 1933 to 1949”; forums and training and professional refresher courses as well as synergies on the occasion of other events in the area and participation in promotional events in Italy and abroad.