"If you want to be a great artist, you have to invent something: a beautiful mind, a beautiful heart, beautiful hands…"
For this episode, Caroline Meesemaecker traveled to Tenuta Petrolo to meet Luca Sanjust. A lover of nature, he runs an estate of immense beauty and makes magnificent wines. With great sensitivity, he tells us about his passion for wine and the permanent bond that ties him to his love of art.
Why did you decide to put Galatrona on the Place de Bordeaux?
"The Bordeaux négociants have been doing this for many years - hundreds of years - and I think they're the best at it. They're very skilled. I believe everyone has their own role in life. We're good at making wine - at least, we hope to be excellent at it. We try to create great wines. We do create great wines.
And I believe the same level of quality we put into production should be reflected in distribution. Right now, the Bordeaux négociants are the best in the world at that.
We started selling Galatrona around the world many years ago - 30 years ago - so I think Galatrona is well known. But with the Place, we can add something more. We can expand further across the world and truly reach more people. Not everyone, of course, because Galatrona's production isn't huge - in the end it's a small production. But with the Bordeaux négociants, I think we can be more precise and go deeper into different markets."
Petrolo in three words?
"Three words: identity, uniqueness, and beauty - or harmony. For me, beauty and harmony are the same thing. But identity and uniqueness, definitely."
Do you draw a parallel between your earlier life as an artist and your current life as a winegrower?
"My previous life taught me to be precise, to be unique, and to be true. Being true is beauty, and beauty is truth. It's also about not taking shortcuts, being truly focused on the goal. If you want to be a good artist or a great artist, you have to invent something.
You need a beautiful mind, a beautiful heart, and beautiful hands. Mind, heart, and hands make art - and they also make wine, with a beautiful terroir, of course. So the idea of perspective, of harmony, of putting all the elements together in the right place is very important in art, and especially important for wine.
When many elements work together to create a great wine, you need a lot of things to come together. It's very similar to art. Sometimes people tell me, 'Being an artist, a painter, and a winegrower is the same thing.' No - they're completely different, because wine is made by both man and nature, while art is made by man alone. But it's true that, when I was an artist, precision, focus, identity - being fully present in that moment, doing something only you can do at that exact instant - were very important. That's also true for wine, because, as I said, uniqueness and identity are essential to creating a great wine."