- What is the history of Enoteca Castiglioni? When was this shop in the historic center of Como born?
The wine shop was founded at the end of 2012 at the behest of the Castiglioni family, active since 1958 with the historic gastronomy of the same name. The shop in Via Cesare Cantù, which since 2003 has been serving as a lunch restaurant, is the longest-running of the city’s public food establishments and has always sold wine in addition to the many other items it deals with. Over the last few years, the property, guided by the spirit that distinguishes it, has decided to further invest in the product and reserve a fully dedicated activity for wine.
Following the objectives achieved during the first years of activity, the most recent and important business development takes place at the beginning of 2020 through the meeting between Marco Castiglioni, owner of the company, and Leonardo Bernasconi DipWSET, director of the wine shop. Professional sommelier who has always been active with roles of responsibility in the Food & Beverage sector, Leonardo, after various work experiences and university studies in Italy and abroad, returns to his hometown taking charge of the management of the wine shop and declining the new offer through a series of innovative initiatives.
- What are the wines you treat?
The selection today consists of about 1000 references including sparkling, white, rosé, red, sweet, fortified and distilled wines. Enoteca Castiglioni boasts wines from every region of Italy and some labels from the main European wine regions. The goal is to further expand the range of domestic and foreign products offered both by the bottle and by the glass through new targeted additions that will complete and enrich the assortment.
With the launch of the new course of Enoteca Castiglioni, we strongly wanted to focus on a selection of wines of high quality and which, beyond classifications and labels, have a strong territorial identity, finesse and typical characteristics. Of all the new entries, none of the labels are produced by large companies; much space is instead reserved for wines from independent winemakers and natural wines resulting from organic and biodynamic agriculture.
Our will is to offer, compatibly with the spaces at our disposal, the widest possible variety. Nevertheless, we often choose to have different wines in each season and we are setting up a more dynamic and challenging job for us and much more fun for the customer, with continuous insertions and news to allow them to explore and taste new styles, vines, wine areas and emerging artisan producers or little known to the general public.
- Do you have brands that cannot be found elsewhere?
In the world that is truly unobtainable there is little, rather, for almost all the great wines the demand is much higher than the supply: the scarcity of product therefore denotes an added value, regardless of whether we are talking about a niche wine produced in a very limited edition from a few thousand or even hundreds of copies or an expensive bottle produced by the most famous wineries in the world.
The opportunity to drink many of the rarest and most sought-after wines in the wine shop, however, is there: in fact we jealously keep some prestigious bottles to share with the most curious and interested on the occasion of the tasting evenings that are organized in the wine shop, thus giving the possibility to a large number of people to be able to drink some goodies hard to find elsewhere.
- What are the most important wines you have?
Our most important wines are those that manage to satisfy the customer. I could make a mere list of our best labels but it seems trivial to me. All the wines we believe in and each bottle are the fruit of the work of people we love to give voice to by spreading their thoughts and making their wines known. From Cà del Vent to Montevertine, from Podere Il Saliceto to Miani, from I Cacciagalli to Ar.Pe.Pe, from Pranzegg to Giacomo Conterno, from Giovanni Montisci to Le Potazzine … Of course we also have several vintages of the most famous supertuscans, from Masseto to Sassicaia, and some small gems from beyond the Alps.
- Besides being able to buy, is it also possible to drink in the wine shop?
Of course, we are also operational with the administration. We have a glass of about 20 wines in rotation as well as about fifty spirits, moreover, for particularly fine wines, we carry out the service by the glass with Coravin. Finally, any bottle on the shelf can be served at the table and combined with the dishes offered in the wine bar menu. In this regard, from this month we are activating a more structured menu than in the past which includes a highly sought-after food proposal in line with the wines offered.
- Do you also do e-commerce?
Castiglioni owns the first license for e-commerce sales in the province of Como and has been active with web sales and shipments since 1990! We have always sold some of the most important references through Wine-Searcher, a reference search engine and marketplace in the fine wine trade sector but, always included in the new company project, we have recently launched a new website and e-commerce at the address: http://www.enotecacastiglioni.com
- Do you organize events and tastings with gastronomic support?
Yes, we organize thematic tasting evenings and courses of approach to wine which also include a gastronomic accompaniment. We communicate mainly directly with our regular customers – subscribed to a newsletter via WhatsApp and to whom exclusive promotions are addressed – but we also advertise new initiatives through our social channels. We are also available to arrange private events tailored to individual customer needs.