“Dunant” Project

Selva Capuzza is in the heart of the battlefield of the most cruel of the italian wars of independence, the battle of San Martino and Solferino ( 1859).
Those were hard times for soldiers, who were massively sent to fight. Soldiers were in such big number that, if injured, they were assisted after horses, which were fewer and considered more precious. First aid used to be given first to those with minor injuries, the badly injured were almost left to die. Mentioning foreigner soldiers, they were really left to their destiny.

The battle of San Martino and Solferino resulted in 30000 dead, and many more wounded and missing; a particularly gruelling battle. The day after a Swiss philanthropist and social activist called Henry Dunant, was travelling in this area chasing Napoleon III to talk about personal issues: he ended up in the apocalyptic scenario of an unexpected battle.

He witnessed a horrible situation and he was extremely shocked. When back to his country he wrote “A memory from Solferino”. This was the turning point that led him to figure out a sanitary system based on the fact that every soldier had to be considered neutral and worth to be helped despite his nationality or military rank and assisted according to the urgency of his injuries.

The fundamentals for the Red Cross were therefore set, now a worldwide known organization.
We love to spread and pass on this story; we are proud that the sparkle of this revolutionary idea was born here, among the vines of our hills, tightly connected to our territory.

Selva Capuzza's motto is to preserve the flavors of our land: we wanted to bound one of our wines, a red one like the blood shed that day, to this part of history in order to allow people to remember.

More than this every year, the restaurant Cascina Capuzza hosts a show, “Qui Per Caso Quel Giorno” (here by chance that day): two story-tellers describe the battle along with a mandolin and a cello, as minstrels used to do.

It is a story told by the point of view of the local people, the farmers, who were shocked and astounded by the battle, that nobody knew would have taken place right here. Sometimes the tale is light, sometimes touching, written and rehearsed with the great passion that only somebody who lives here feels and is able to share.

Since ten years, following an agreement with the Red Cross, our Garda Classico Rosso bears the name of this man, the first to receive the Nobel Peace Price in 1901.

To celebrate the 160th anniversary of the battle, we restyled the label adding the signature of Henry Dunant in its centre.

We took the chance to cooperate again with the “Red Cross Museum” of Castiglione delle Stiviere, and they showed us the document that sealed the birth of the Red Cross. The signature on that document is now, in red colour, at the center of the label of our Garda Classico Dunant.