Alessandro Bonifazi and Bruno Tribbioli

present

Zucco
THE WINE OF THE SON OF THE KING OF THE FRENCH
DIRECTED BY

LIDIA RIZZO

CREDITS
Written and directed by Editing Cinematography Original Music First assistant director and research Sound Voice Production sound mixing Audio engineer English Version With the participation of Lidia Rizzo Valeria Biclungo Antonio Covato e Orazio Cristaldi Rudy Gnutti Bianca Cleide Strano Giuseppe Cutuli e Salvo Anastasi Gaetano Lizzio Mediavox Paolo Anzovini Nick Field Pietro Galioto, Giacomo Ansaldi, Olvier Bosc Michele Di Dio, Salvo di Matteo, Nicole Garnier Renata Niggli, Ennio Palmigiano, Giuseppe Polizzi Giovanni Purpura, Vito Talluto, Vittorio Umilt Enzo Sellerio Film Commission Regione Sicilia Cities Hall of Carini, Montelepre, Terrasini Blue Film Grafofilm Italia Archivio Muse Cond Chantilly CRICD-Istituto del Catalogo della Regione Siciliana Giovanni Purpura, Publifoto Palermo Salvatore Chiaramonte Casa Editrice Sellerio Casa editrice C.U.E.M Desire Vacirca Gloria Calvello di San Vincenzo 2012 Blue Film 60 - Color - HD CAM Palermo Terrasini Zucco Montelepre Carini Parigi - Chantilly
crediti non contrattuali

And In collaboration with Under the Patronage of Organization Executive Production in Sicily Thanks for Archive images

Year Distribution Duration Location

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SINOSSI
What brought the richest man of the late 18th century to die in a province in the depths of southern Italy? A grand estate, a wine: Zucco. The Duke of Aumale was the son of Louis Philippe, the first bourgeois King, known as the King of the French. He was exiled from his beloved France and in Sicily found a land where he could apply the agricultural precepts of Virgil, an author loved by his childhood educator Cuvilliere-Fleury, correspondence with whom lasted throughout his life and bear witness to his love of books, art and wine. Zuccos wines became famous for their purity compared to the Maderas which used to be drunk at that time. They were produced by the Duke in an avant-garde winery which provided work for the majority of the population of Montelepre. Those wines are no longer produced today but they have left indelible memories between Chantilly Castle in France and the Fiefdom of Zucco in the Province of Palermo. Pietro has inherited a part of the Zucco estate from his father where he grew up listening to legends about the Duke told by the old field-workers. Peter produces organic citrus fruit, but one day he hears a voicethe call of the Zucco wine which surpasses time and will perhaps change his life
BIOGRAPHY OF THE DIRECTOR Lidia Rizzo is a Sicilian documentary filmmaker and screenwriter. Trained by the Italian director, Folco Quilici, she has a wide-ranging curriculum in film production, with experience on Cultural Heritage, Territorial Marketing and Product Placement. In recent years, she has specialized on documentaries on viticulture; her recent work includes: Sicily, a sea of wine - Viticulture in western Sicily Blue Film, Rome, The Islands of divine wind -Viticulture of the minor islands in Sicily Blue Film, Rome. Lo Zucco. The wine of the son of the king of the French- Blue film -Rome
PRESS OFFICE Lidia Rizzo Tel.+39 339 4282147 zucco.movie@gmail.com excerpts video su : http://www.lozuccothewine.com http://www.bluefilm.it https://www.facebook.com/LoZuccoFilm

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Director Notes Documentary 60 HD film Discovering the secret of a famous old wine I love wine and wine stories. When, three years ago, I was shooting my first documentary on the wine of western Sicily, I came across the amazing story of the Zucco wine and I did all I could to make a documentary about it. I received a grant from the Sicilian Regional Fund for Cinema and went on my quest to discover the secret of this famous wine: the Zucco. Wine is a wonderful time machine, it is man made, and therefore, it takes you into human vicissitudes and in "History". I like the very strong human component of a product like wine. The Zucco gave the farmers of Montelepre the awareness of being part of a better world, and the survivors still feel part of a paradise lost. This great experience handed down through three generations has made their lives legendary. In this case I wanted to make a film to let people know about an important piece of French and Italian oenological history: I could never imagine that where the great chef Vatel guarded the secret of Chantilly cream I would find the secret of the vin de Zucco produced in Sicily. A natural wine. The estate of Zucco, a state of the art wine farm, established in 1853 in the province of Palermo by the son of the King of the French, was a property that has experienced various trials and tribulations and has been seized and auctioned several times. But a small part of it just the area where the Duke had his own vineyard -- still belongs to Pietro Galioto, an organic farmer who has inherited it from his father. Pietro has lived here his childhood and listened to the legends of the Duke. I met him when he was about to surrender to the call of a mysterious voice that whispered You must make the wine. At the same time there was a beautiful farm with its industrial archaeology, the cellar, the factory, the home of the Duke, who were still there and were going into pieces. Testimony to the golden age of Sicilian viticulture when France, despite being a long way ahead in innovative production, was doubly tied to Sicily for the needs of a blending wine to complement the massive losses of the vineyards due to powdery mildew first and then to the phylloxera. In this the late nineteenth century context, the production of Zucco went on, winning among Italian wines a la Madeira, most popular in the world, but was different from those for its absolute purity and guarantees of counterfeiting, from the cap to the labels. The success of the wine Zucco, continued, in fact, when France -- with its colonies now producing grapes in Tunisia -no longer depended on Sicilian grapes. Today, people only remember the Moscato Zucco made famous by the princes of Gangi, the last wine producers of Zucco. However, during my research in France, at the Chteau de Chantilly I discovered a few things about the Zucco and the Duke of Aumale. I wanted to divulge them for the love of wine, history, and to give an opportunity to the wine entrepreneurs who are confronted with the challenge of Quality and the real strength of Sicilian wine: the land and its history. Among the historians of the Orleans, as Salvo Di Matteo, connoisseurs like Ennio Palmigiano and the local farmers, I collect the last accounts on the subject from two beautiful people who sadly left us recently: the lawyer Vittorio Umilt of Save Palermo, and the great photographer and publisher Enzo Sellerio. It was very difficult to tell the story of the Zucco wine without being totally overwhelmed by the great personality of its producer: the richest man in the world, patron, bibliophile, writer and son of the first King of the French, called also "Citizen King". The letters sent from Sicily to his tutor Cuvilliere Fleury, describe the love he had for this wine and for this land, where he returned one last time to die. I hope I have been able to show both sides of things: long live France, long live Sicily, long live wine!

First wine label - Duke Henri D'Aumale

Zucco, the wine of the son of the King of the French

Sicily and France, in the nineteenth century were linked by a fascinating story that involved one of the richest men in the world at the time: Henri Louis Philippe, Duc D'Aumale, the fifth son of Louis-Philippe, duke of Orleans, king of the French, and Marie Amalie of Bourbons Sicily. He produced le vin de Zucco in Sicily. A land full of family memories- his parents married in the Palazzo Orleans in Palermo- but also a land paradise of the Virgil's Memories. A land where, during the sad period between the two exiles, in his very learned vision of the world, the duke regained his strength following the precepts of Virgil: dedicating his time, working directly the land and writing The story of Cond, his ancestors. Le vin de Zucco, was produced in 1856, in a state of the art winery in western Sicily, on the largest estate of the island, called Lo Zucco. The Zucco wine was similar to the wines of Madeira but different from those for its purity and because it was not achieved with the addition of alcohol, but only by an aging at least 5 years before being bottled. It was a natural wine. In 1897, an agronomists' expedition from France, introduced by the writer, Bazin, went to Sicily to examine the production of this wine so popular, drawing up a very detailed document that described both the work in the vineyard and the winemaking. The Zucco wine, between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, became very famous in the world, appearing in books, magazines, advertisings and becoming a flag of an exiled man. The Duke of Aumale was a leader for the Orleanist cause for a constitutional monarchy in France. He was a great bibliophile and mecenate, patron of the arts, supporting artists and poets of the third Republic. The Zucco estate was frequented by the Royalty and poets, writers, painters like Victor Hugo, Bonnard, Jerome, Vuilliere, Bazin, Edith Wharton and visited by many famous chroniclers of the time. After his banishment, the Duke was free to devote himself to the restoration of his Chantilly Castle. Strangely enough, though old and sick, we see him once again return to the Zucco (or come to die?) in spring time, to recover his strength, drinking the prodigious wine. [...] J'irai bientt me rconforter et me rajeunir la source de ce vin rparateur . He will die here, far away from his France... The production of this wine, traveling in fashionable circles with its celebrities and the pilgrimage of the Zucco goers to the Sicily's Estate, was continued until 1923 by his grandnephew and heir, as well as heir to the throne of France, Louis Philippe Robert. Traveller, explorer, eccentric, young and rich adventurer, but also marked by exile. He - like his granduncle the Duke- also died in Sicily in 1926 at Orleans Palace, which he used as home base for his 6
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 travels in Africa. He sold the Zucco in 1923 to the Princes of Ganci.

The income derived from exploitation of the Zucco's farm, an estate of 6000 hectares, gave work and a livelihood to about 4000 people, if you think that at the border with Zucco, the country of Montelepre had a population of 7,500 souls spread over an area of 934 ha, we understand how a farm of this nature was a benefit for this country. The Princes of Ganci continued the production of wine and muscat Zucco until 1955, despite the great phylloxera epidemic of the early twentieth century and in the midst of the two world wars, the misery of the peasants of Montelepre, and the riots of the bandit Giuliano. After the death of the Princess Giulia Mantegna of Ganci, the farm was inherited from her daughter. Stefanina Mantegna carried on the wine production until the sale of the farm. The new owners were interested only to obtain public funds for citrus plants. They destroyed vineyards and everything related to the wine and olive oil production. Nowadays, few people knows about this story and the estate of Zucco in the province of Palermo is still exist. We can see the huge abandoned factory, what remains of the cellars, factory barrels, of oil and wheat warehouses. Chantilly Castle Maybe is not a case if where the great chef Vatel, treasured the precious recipe of Chantilly Cream, is also conserved the secret of the Zucco Wine: the Archives conserve many documents, on wine production to accounts books, technical books and financial records which testify the life and work at Zucco. There are different album collections of the nineteenth century, in particular of the Italian photographer Interguglielmi, but also French photographers which show the life of The Duke of Aumale in Sicily. The Pavillion De Mase, masterpiece of Hydraulic machines in 1700, enriched with new inventions by the Duke of Aumale, is now an evidence of why he had devised a state-of-the-art farm in Zucco. There are still alive in Montelepre, people who worked on the farm for three generations as their fathers and grandfathers, have vivid memories of a Paradise lost of Zucco. A small part of the Zucco property has been inherited by Pietro Galioto from his father, who had bought a piece of Zucco land included the old house of the oenologist. Pietro, organic farmer, have grown up amongst the memorabilia of the Duke D'Aumale and his legend fed by the locals. Pietro wants to produce the Zucco Wine of the Duke in his same ancient way by the methods of the natural agriculture. The IRVOS, Regional Institute of the Wine and olive Oils, has launched a trial with some companies in Partinico, replanting the grape of Muscat Zucco, and doing the first vinification. Today no one knows what will happen to the "Zucco", it is certain that no wine under this name may bring back the memory of such an important story. Pietro, definitely is the last link in this chain of memory, who knows if he can revive the wine of the Zucco...

document 1862

Estate of Zucco 1897

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