Roberto Cipresso: mountains, words and the 43rd parallel

Live Instagram interview, February 2021. Updated October 2026.

Roberto Cipresso is one of Italy's best-known winemakers. Before wine, though, there were the mountains: the urge to climb, to test himself against effort and his own limits. When we asked him, in our first live interview, he said wine and mountains teach the same things: living with fear, knowing your abilities, respecting nature even when it disagrees with you.

Making yourself understood

Cipresso has a precise view of how wine should be talked about, and borrows a line from the writer Folco Portinari: competence is not measured by more sophisticated language. Wine culture, for him, is about being understood. And authenticity gets lost when marketing speaks louder than people.

La Quadratura del Cerchio

His most personal project has the name of a mathematical riddle: squaring the circle, the square that can never quite match the circle's area. It is a wine built around the 43rd parallel, the imaginary line that crosses Italian lands of great native grapes. Sangiovese is the base, with Montepulciano and Sagrantino; it ages 18 months in French oak.

In the glass: pomegranate, cherry and currant, then tobacco and black pepper. Elegant without being austere, velvety without being heavy.

Why it stays with you

• An idea before a label. The 43rd parallel is a story you remember even before tasting the wine.
• Simple words, deep expertise. The most useful lesson for anyone who serves wine.

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