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Tuscan estates retain Equalitas certifications

10 July 2023 By Louis Thomas

Tuscan estates Castello di Albola and Rocca di Montemassi, part of Zonin1821 Group’s portfolio, further showed their commitment to sustainability as both retained their Equalitas certifications.

Castello di Albola, based in Radda in Chianti, and Maremma’s Rocca di Montemassi, have both successfully kept Equalitas status.

Equality is an Italian standards body that assesses companies based on their environmental, economic and social sustainability. The Equalitas-Vino Sostenibile standard encourages wine businesses to adopt an internal Sustainability Management System and publish an Annual Sustainability Report that enables both them and the stakeholders to assess progress.

Castello di Albola began its conversion to organic viticulture in 2016, and all of its wines since the 2020 vintage have been certified as organic. Rocca di Montemassi has released a number of its first organic vintages on the market this year, including Le Focaie 2021, Sassabruna 2022 and Rocca di Montemassi 2022.

Alessandro Gallo, manager and winemaker of Castello di Albola and Rocca di Montemassi, said: “We are proud to continue to promote sustainable development by transparently reporting on the results achieved against our strategic objectives and sharing this information with our stakeholders. Respect for the territory, care for people (whether employees, those who live in these places or wine lovers from all over the world) and experimentation with technological innovations aimed at sustainable development are just some of our pillars in the field of sustainability.”

Zonin1821 Group president Domenico Zonin said: “Now more than ever, the world and consumers at large demand that companies take a stand on sustainability-related issues: the logic of unfettered profit, the irrepressible capitalism of profit without consequences is no longer synonymous with good entrepreneurship. Companies are being tasked to express responsibility in their work and justify their choices: in the light of this, sustainability cannot be conceived as an additional element to doing business but must be one of the
founding elements of a business model, its corporate culture and its strategic choices.”

We should also try to be concrete and realistic and avoid falling into idealism,” Zonin continued. “Promoting sustainability is not easy and the road for society is long, as shown by the frequent changes in pro-sustainability legislation. The path must be traveled together, involving every company and individual, each in their own small way.”