Festa del Vino di Montepulciano: B2B merch for wineries, sponsors and delegations

Merchandising for the teams around the Festa del Vino di Montepulciano

Programme

Annual wine festival in the historic centre of Montepulciano with cantine openings, piazza tastings, dinners and the Bravìo delle Botti barrel-rolling final

City

Montepulciano, Tuscany, Italy

The Festa del Vino is the late-August wine festival that turns the historic centre of Montepulciano into a week-long celebration of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG, the Sangiovese-based red wine that has been produced in the town since the 17th century. Cantine open their doors along the Via di Gracciano and the Via di Collazzi, the Poliziano piazza fills with tasting booths, the consortium hosts dinners and tastings at the Tempio di San Biagio and in the Cortile del Palazzo Comunale, and the week closes with the Bravìo delle Botti — the barrel race where eight contrada teams roll 80-kilo wine barrels uphill through the historical centre. The audience is a mix of residents, Italian and international wine buyers, sommelier delegations and corporate sponsors, and the visual identity of the season has to travel across the historic streets — from the cantina cellars in the tufa rock, to the tasting booths, to the Bravìo grandstands in Piazza Grande.

For Vino Nobile wineries, Consorzio del Vino Nobile delegations and corporate teams, the merch cycle is coordinated through the winery's hospitality lead, through the consortium's institutional-relations office and through the delegation's sommelier or protocol lead. Corp-Merch.IT runs the full production cycle from a Milan hub: brief collection, art adaptation, producer qualification on Tuscan supply chains (Val di Chiana leather, Arezzo goldsmithing, Sinalunga paper, Pienza pecorino packaging for limited editions, Val d'Orcia honey and oil gifts, the fashion and apparel districts of Florence and Empoli for small-batch Renaissance-style pieces), a physical pre-production sample with a Pantone colour map and a screen-print proof on certified fabric, and a structured proposal within 48 business hours of the kick-off. For programmes that mix winery apparel, hospitality and contrada-team kits, we split the kit into separately labelled lots per recipient, with separate delivery addresses if a Florence-based sponsor wants a share of the kit collected from its own office.

For sponsoring companies with VAT registration, the invoice goes out in EUR at the standard 22% IVA rate, with reduced 4%, 5% and 10% brackets applied where the product category allows (books and printed paper, in particular, fall under reduced rates). The invoice is routed through the Agenzia delle Entrate's Sistema di Interscambio (SdI) to the buyer's codice destinatario or PEC address. For international buyers inside the EU we operate the reverse charge under Article 196 of the VAT Directive; for buyers outside the EU we can issue invoices ex-VAT or with VAT refund support through the Italian VAT-refund portal.

Production and venue logistics toward Montepulciano

Before production begins, artwork, per-cantina quantities, packaging and the named on-site recipient must be locked. The exact piazza booth and the sponsor table addresses finalise only against the current municipal layout close to the festival — Montepulciano's historic centre and the Poliziano square are pedestrian-only during the festival week and on Bravìo evening, and cannot be used as parcel-reception addresses during the festival without prior notice from the Comune di Montepulciano and the Bravìo organising committee. The town's ZTL (limited traffic zone) and the steep historic streets condition courier access in the centro storico, and most wineries combine a cantina warehouse on the valley road with a staging hotel in Val di Chiana and a piazza pickup on the afternoon of the tasting. The winery hospitality lead coordinates the loading slot the day before the Bravìo.

For a Montepulciano programme routed from Milan, deliveries are consolidated at the hub and dispatched to the staging area in Val di Chiana (Montepulciano Stazione, Sinalunga, Chiusi) with a 24–48 hour window via BRT, SDA, GLS or DHL Express, and on appointment for cantina cellary and warehouse addresses. For transfer up to the historic centre we work with local ZTL-permitted couriers licensed by the Comune di Montepulciano. For programmes above 1,000 pieces we offer appointment delivery with phone pre-notice and, on request, on-site set-up at the sponsor table by our staff. For clients subject to CSRD reporting (D.Lgs. 125/2024, transposing Directive (EU) 2022/2464) we attach a sustainability data sheet per PO with Scope 3 CO₂e estimates per GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain on the Lombardy–Tuscany lane, including the Val di Chiana–Milan–Montepulciano, Arezzo–Milan–Montepulciano and Sinalunga–Milan–Montepulciano production routes.

All Italian B2B orders are invoiced in EUR at the standard 22% IVA rate (with reduced 4%, 5% and 10% rates where applicable by product category) and routed through the Agenzia delle Entrate's Sistema di Interscambio (SdI) to the buyer's codice destinatario or PEC address. Corp-Merch.IT is a registered Italian VAT operator, listed on VIES for intra-EU operations, and handles reverse charge, split payment and pubblica-amministrazione self-invoicing under current Italian rules.

Planning timeline

1. 10–12 weeks out: lock product list, per-cantina quantities and decoration methods, especially for Pienza pecorino limited editions and consortium-tier gifts.
2. 6–8 weeks out: approve a physical or pre-production sample for textiles, Sinalunga paper goods and Pienza pecorino packaging.
3. 3–4 weeks out: finish production, AQL 2.5 quality control and per-recipient labelling.
4. Final week: reconfirm the delivery calendar for each cantina, the sponsor table warehouse and any partner-dinner venues.

Certifications, quality and lot traceability

For Vino Nobile di Montepulciano wineries, consortium delegations and corporate teams presenting a Festa del Vino merch programme, coherence between visual identity and raw materials is integral to the offering. We work with Italian producers operating under ISO 9001 (quality), ISO 14001 (environmental management) and SA8000 or equivalent for social responsibility, and holding the main product certifications required by the segment: OEKO-TEX Standard 100 on skin-contact textiles (cotton for T-shirts and aprons, Como silk for pocket squares), GOTS on organic cotton, GRS on recycled polyester, FSC on paper and packaging (programmes, labels, tasting cards), EU Ecolabel on a range of textile and stationery items.

For Sinalunga paper the producer holds the Italian origin certificate and uses cotton fibre from European spinning mills with FSC-certified supply. For Pienza pecorino the producer holds the Pecorino Toscano DOP certification and can attach a conformity declaration for every batch. For Val di Chiana leather the producer keeps the Italian origin certificate and can attach a conformity declaration under the Italian Cultural Heritage and Landscape Code (D.Lgs. 42/2004) for any object that incorporates protected iconography. On the packaging side, paper-product manufacturers offer FSC or PEFC options and, on request, plastic-free with vegetable-based inks.

For clients subject to CSRD reporting (D.Lgs. 125/2024) we integrate into the PO a sustainability data sheet with Scope 3 CO₂e estimate per GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain, broken down by material (cotton, silk, paper, leather, glass) and by logistics lane (Val di Chiana–Milan–Montepulciano, Arezzo–Milan–Montepulciano, Sinalunga–Milan–Montepulciano, Empoli–Milan–Montepulciano), plus ESRS E1 (Climate Change), E5 (Resource Use) and S2 (Workers in the Value Chain) references for the client's sustainability balance sheet. On request we also include packaging-waste reporting submitted to CONAI for post-consumer material traceability.