Chiarli

 

In 1850, Cleto Chiarli moved from the countryside to the town of Modena, together with his wife Lucia and their four children: Adalgisa, Oreste, Anselmo and Aristide. In the town centre, he opened up the “Osteria dell’Artigliere” (lit. ‘The Gunner’s Eating House’).

In 1860 Cleto Chiarli decided to close his ‘osteria’ down in order to dedicate himself only to the making of Lambrusco, which until then he had been producing for his customers in the ‘Artigliere’.

This proved to be a momentous turning point which would indicate the direction to follow for the future generations, and which would bring about nothing short of a revolution in the selling of Lambrusco. At that time, Chiarli realised the importance of starting to sell bottled wine and he developed the basic techniques needed to produce this unique product, which becomes sparkling only inside the bottle through a natural process of re-fermentation.

At the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris the ‘Cleto Chiarli & Figli’ is awarded the prestigious ‘Mention Honorable’ prize, and its certificate has been carefully kept to this day. In what one could call the ‘temple of wine’, where Lambrusco had never been tasted before, the Chiarli winery was highly praised both for the excellent quality of its wine and for other innovative features, such as the bottle itself, the label and the cork bound up with a little twine. This certificate helped spread the fame of the Company and recognised its impressive improvements in terms of its products’ qualities, through which it came to be a very important institution in the world of wine production.

 

1900 - 1960

 

The Company flourished and was able to reach an impressive production of one million bottles in 1910. Its Lambrusco was also able to broaden its horizons; following the great number of emigrating Italian families, Chiarli wines became very successful not only in Italy but also in other countries, such as the U.S., Argentina, France and Germany.

In 1925 one of Cleto’s sons, Anselmo, who had been leading the Company for some years, acquired a large plot of land in the outskirts of Modena. There he built a modern winery, which enabled Chiarli to reach even higher production figures.

In the Spring of 1944, while still expanding, the winery was severely damaged by an extensive bombing on Modena carried out by the Allies. As a result, production was interrupted.

In 1946, after a period of inactivity which had lasted two years, the winery was re-built by Anselmo’s sons, Giovanni and Giorgio, who also started to lead the Company. The Lambrusco produced by Chiarli had not been forgotten, and orders started to arrive not only from the whole of Italy but also from abroad. The Company started to flourish again in a time when, after the end of the War, the Country was eager to create a better future for everybody. Production rose and in a short time the winery reached an output of three million bottles per year.

In 1958 Chiarli is the first wine-producing company in the Emilia-Romagna region to adopt the ‘Charmat Method’ in the production of its wine, through which the process of re-fermentation is carried out in closed tanks, called “cuves closes”. In this way it was possible to produce a Lambrusco which is even more fragrant, fruitier and more varied.

 

1960 - 1980

 

In 1960, Chiarli decided to celebrate its first 100 years of business with a new line of Sorbara wine, which bears the “Centenario” (“Hundredth”) label. This swiftly became the winery’s best-known product, which managed to reach every corner of Italy and many foreign markets.

In 1962, the winery in Modena is further expanded with a new department for the production of wine, which included new tanks for fermentation and new machinery for bottling. As a result, sales rose to six million bottles per year. This steady expansion showed the need for strategic decisions which included the creation, in 1970, of a modern department in the winery exclusively dedicated to the products’ packing, enabling the Company to meet the ever-increasing orders.

At the beginning of the 1970s Giorgio’s sons, Mauro and Anselmo, started to work for Chiarli, with the former actively concentrating on the production of Lambrusco, the latter on sales management.

In Italy, the Lambrusco produced by Chiarli is the best known and best sold. Consumers both from the North and from the South enjoy this wine, which is fresh, young and rich of fragrant bubbles. They also appreciate the bottle, with its cork and seal, which guarantees the product’s quality and practicality in every-day use.

Chiarli Lambrusco is also extremely successful abroad, and its fame spreads to many countries. Chiarli manage to export not only in Europe, especially in France, the U.K., Germany and France, but also in South America, Canada and the United States.

 

1980 -2000

 

Towards the end of the 1970s, other wineries in the Emilia Romagna region start to produce great amounts of Lambrusco, and its quality is therefore compromised in order to follow consumers’ tastes and the trend of new markets. This leads to the creation of a fashionable wine with characteristics which are very far from its ancient and genuine qualities. After a few years, however, as expected of fleeting caprices, this trend comes to an end, leaving a negative aura to Lambrusco. It is therefore necessary to improve its image by reintroducing standards concerning both general quality and specific features which truly show the nature of this wine.

The Chiarli family therefore roll up their sleeves and start an intense and important work of requalification and valorisation of Lambrusco. This includes a complete reshaping of the vineyards in order to make them more practical and functional towards the Company’s new needs; the ‘historic vineyards’ were updated, the greater part of the farming started to be done with the latest mechanical innovations, even better clones were selected and vineyards growing in unsuitable areas were extirpated. Alongside these innovations, new machines to produce Sorbara and Grasparossa Lambrusco were acquired to further improve its qualities. These proved to be crucial investments which would be key in the overall Company’s development in future years.

In 1989 and 2002 respectively Giovanni and Giorgio passed away. Giorgio’s sons, Anselmo and Mauro, who belong to the fourth generation, are now left with the task of following their great-grandfather Cleto’s footsteps. It could be certainly regarded as an inheritance filled with responsibilities, though one which would prove very stimulating for them. They indeed had very strong feelings and ideas on how to organise the development of Chiarli wineries, the most important independent grape growing and wine producing company in the Emilia-Romagna region.

Mauro decided to continue overseeing the vineyards and the whole process of producing Lambrusco, which includes farming, the vines’ trimming, the grape harvest and the bottling process. Anselmo became the managing director and entrusted the sales and marketing departments to experienced managers who had had their professional development inside Chiarli.

In 2000, this old and historic winery was producing over 20 million bottles per year, and 50% of those were exported in a context of fiercely growing competitiveness. Chiarli, however, managed to be successful through the renown for its DOC wines, which always present a unique excellence in their qualities.

 

2000 -2012

 

The new ‘Cleto Chiarli’ winery.

After many years of success, Mauro and Anselmo decided in 2002 to start a very ambitious project: the building of a brand-new winery, which would have a new state-of-the-art production line, fitted with the latest technology, thus enabling them to process the grapes grown in the Chiarli estates in order to produce Lambrusco of the highest quality. At the same time this project would provide the facilities for the promotion of all the different Lambrusco varieties which have always been present in the region surrounding Modena.

The ‘Azienda Agricola Castelvetro’ provided the ideal setting where fulfil this project, since it already had 40 hectares of vineyards and some historical buildings, which include ‘Villa Cialdini, where the famous Italian patriot in the Risorgimento, General Enrico Cialdini, was born in 1811.

The building works of the new winery proved to be long and complicated, especially so since one had both to save the style of the historic buildings and to install highly technological machinery. The result, however, turned out to be a splendidly successful marriage between the ancient and the modern, in the traditional setting of the countryside surrounding Modena.

In 2003, the new winery, dedicated to Cleto Chiarli, the founder of the Chiarli Company in Modena, started to produce Lambrusco, and since then the best selections of grapes have been collected, processed, bottled and signed with the ‘Cleto Chiarli’ label.

The ‘Cleto Chiarli’ winery represents a crucial turning point for the Chiarli family ever since the start of the Company’s history, founded by Cleto in 1860.