One of my best all-time wine memories is from a November Monday nearly 20 years ago at Burgundy’s La Paulée de Meursault. The 101-year-old Paulée, held at Château de Meursault, is probably the world’s greatest bacchanalia—celebrating the completion of Burgundy’s harvest with wine producers, associates, friends and wine lovers the world over.
It’s also a BYO party beyond compare, with guests wielding magnums and even larger formats of oft-historic white and red Burgundy crus. I remember hundreds of big bottles—each rarer than the next—passed from hand to hand and table to table for six hours. Then in the crisp evening, we went out to tour local cellars!
In the last 25 years, spinoffs have been replicated around the world, from New York and San Francisco to Singapore and Australia. No one owns the name “Paulée,” which is derived from the French word poêle (frying pan).
Still, I was surprised some months ago by an invitation to an Italian version: a two-day Paulée not in Milan or Montalcino, but in Solomeo, the fiefdom of fashion mogul Brunello Cucinelli and his young Castello di Solomeo boutique winery in Central Italy’s Umbria region.
Cucinelli’s Paulée was his own high-minded version, held for 200 guests in the Umbrian hamlet he has transformed into a sophisticated country idyll with a restored medieval castle, olive groves, public parks and labyrinth-inspired vineyards. Over two days in November, the event included tastings and pairings of some iconic French wines, a symposium and a gala dinner prepared by chef Michel Troisgros from France’s legendary Maison Troisgros.
Cucinelli choreographed a Renaissance-era ambience in the hamlet around his castle, featuring colorfully dressed period entertainers and musicians, as well as local foods.
Taking it all in was an international mix of guests who spend small fortunes on Cucinelli clothing and/or collecting fine wine—along with leaders in fashion, wine, technology, communications, philanthropy and finance. There were a couple of royals from countries in the Middle East and lots of the fabric for which Cucinelli is best known: cashmere.
The themes were different than a classic Burgundy Paulée. There wasn’t a BYO event, but a small group of prestigious French wine producers poured: Bordeaux’s Château Lafite Rothschild, Château d’Yquem and Château Cheval Blanc; Burgundy’s Domaine du Marquis d’Angerville and Maison Louis Jadot; and Champagnes Delamotte and Krug.
And of course, the tastings included Cucinelli’s single Castello di Solomeo Umbria red, of which the second vintage (2019) is about to be released. A pet project inspired by super Tuscans, made from Bordeaux varieties with a touch of Sangiovese, the wine is made with renowned enologist Riccardo Cotarella and a mere 750 cases are produced a year.
The mood was also different. In Solomeo, where marble busts and inscriptions of quotes from history’s great philosophers have been literally embedded into the place, everything resolves around Cucinelli’s curated lifestyle and his ethic of “Humanistic Capitalism.”
“Working the earth is important,” Cucinelli said in his opening speech on Solomeo’s main square. “We do it with respect for human dignity.”
Troisgros, the fourth generation to run his family’s restaurant, which has held three Michelin stars since 1968, followed with characteristic modesty. “I am not a star. I am a fragment of an extraordinary story,” he said. “The great chefs nowadays make too much of a show of sophistication … The real stars are the cuisine and the ingredients.”
The following day, at the Renaissance-styled Cucinelli Theatre, speakers covered broad themes of sustainability. Saskia de Rothschild, the young CEO of Domaines Barons de Rothschild Lafite, who led the château’s conversion to organic agriculture, spoke about adapting to climate change. “Winemaking is the most beautiful job in the world, but also the cruelest because from one day to the next you can lose your crop,” she said. “We are not working for today. We are working for 20 to 30 years in the future.”
Agronomist and flying vineyard consultant Marco Simonit, CEO of Simonit & Sirch Vine Master Pruners, stressed the correlation between having qualified workers and preserving old vineyards and terroirs. “To make wine of a place, we need people who observe,” he said. “We need to give dignity, respect and pride to those who work in the vines.”
And Guillaume d’Angerville, the former investment banker who became the sixth generation of his family to helm Domaine Marquis d’Angerville, spoke of the decade-long quest to have the vineyards of Burgundy and their climats listed in 2015 as a UNESCO World Heritage site. “If there is a challenge to Burgundy, it is losing our soul,” d’Angerville said.
“And how do we lose our soul? With too much money,” he added, decrying speculation on wines and vineyard land that has splintered family estates.
Afterwards, in Cucinelli’s company canteen on the leafy corporate campus below Solomeo, Troisgros and his team served up a refined seven-course meal with a relatively moderate number of wines: eight. The evening began with caviar mille-feuille and Champagne Salon Le Mesnil 2013 and ended with a dessert called “Saffron Sun” accompanied by 1988 Château d’Yquem Sauternes.
Will there will be another “Paulée” Cucinelli?
No one is sure. The idea for this one came from Patrick O’Connor, CEO of Cucinelli’s global distributor Fine+Rare and a board member of the U.S.-based Paulée led by sommelier Daniel Johnnes (wine director for chef Daniel Boulud’s Dinex group), who staged the Solomeo event.
“I got to know Brunello and I said, ‘What if we put these two worlds together and see what happens,’” O’Connor said. “Sometimes you have to roll the dice.”
