Torgiano is an Italian town of 6 562 inhabitants in the province
of Perugia in Umbria. It is listed as one of the most beautiful
villages in Italy.
It originates from a medieval castle. Of
the latter, only a few ruined walls and a tower remain. In the 17th
century, the Baglioni family erected a palace there, which
Lungarotti used as a wine museum. Torgiano is in fact renowned, in
Italy and in the world, for its DOC and DOCG wines.
Wine Museum
The Torgiano Wine Museum (MUVIT) is a specialized
private museum. It is based in Torgiano, in the center of an
established wine-growing area located between Perugia and Assisi and
known for its Rosso DOC and Torgiano Rosso Riserva DOCG.
Founded in 1974 and housed in the seventeenth-century
Palazzo Graziani-Baglioni, in the rooms once used for the storage of
agricultural products, it is considered one of the most important
museums in the sector in Italy.
The conception and
construction of the Wine Museum were by Maria Grazia Marchetti, art
historian, wife of Giorgio Lungarotti, one of the patriarchs of
Italian enology. It is managed, with the Olive and Oil Museum, by
the Lungarotti Foundation, an institute that deals with the
enhancement of Italian agricultural culture through research
activities, exhibitions, conferences, publishing initiatives.
In 20 rooms over 2,800 artifacts of archeology,
ceramics, graphics, antiquarian publishing and other evidence of
minor arts are exhibited that document the centrality of wine in
Mediterranean culture, its culture, its history, its relationship
with food, pharmacy, the myth, starting from the third millennium BC
up to our days.
The material is exhibited by thematic areas.
The visit begins with an overview of the Middle Eastern origins of
viticulture, and its expansion in the Mediterranean basin (first
room). There are therefore various archaeological finds, ranging
from the Bronze Age to the Late Ancient Age, including a kylix
attributed to the Painter of Phrynos, from the group of Little
Masters.
In the following rooms (from II to VIII) the
winemaking techniques in vogue in Umbria are illustrated. The annual
viticultural cycle and the traditional techniques of execution are
documented by a remarkable series of tools and work tools. The part
that illustrates the occasions and places of drinking is also very
rich. In the basement of the building there is a large room
dedicated to winemaking, which houses large presses, stills, a
cauldron, a bottling machine, terracotta jars. A small room (VI)
illustrates the various stages of processing of the “Vino Santo”, a
passito wine which in Umbria by ancient tradition accompanies the
festive occasions of the family calendar. A room (VII) follows in
which the various trades connected to viticulture are remembered
(coopers, tubs, blacksmiths, funers, basket-makers, etc.), with a
large collection of tools. After a room dedicated to the regulation
of the harvest time, the use and trade of wine (VIII), we move on to
two rooms dedicated specifically to crafts and viticulture in
Torgiano (IX-X).
In the following rooms (XI-XV) the attention
is focused on a vast collection of ancient ceramic wine containers,
originating from the most famous Italian production areas. The
thematic classification divides the ceramics on display into the
three sectors of "wine as food" (measures, bottles, etc.), "wine as
medicine" (pourers, albarelli, pharmacy ointments, mortars,
pharmaceutical jars), "wine and the myth ”(historians, including
works by Mastro Giorgio Andreoli, models, including a notable bust
of Bacchus attributed to Girolamo Della Robbia, symbolic
decorations, largely linked to the enigmatic personality of Dionysos
/ Bacchus).
In a subsequent room (XVI) it is then possible to
admire an important collection of waffle irons, useful for the
preparation of thin biscuits that usually accompanied the offer of
Vin Santo.
A rich collection of Dionysian-themed engravings
and drawings (XVII) follows, consisting of about 600 works including
engravings by Mantegna, Carracci, Guttuso and Picasso. After a room
dedicated to the ex libris in question (XVIII), the visit ends with
the exhibition of valuable editions of fiction and treatises on wine
and almanacs (XIX).
Acknowledgments
In 1992 the Museum was
awarded the “Prix de l'Excellence Regionale” in Paris, as part of
the III Salon International des Musées.