A novel electrical Maserati marks a long-standing partnership with a legendary vineyard

That is the one-off Maserati GranCabrio Folgore Tignanello Version, a celebration of Maserati’s bespoke Fuoriserie programme and the corporate’s lengthy affiliation with the Marchesi Antinori vineyard, and Tignanello, one of the crucial influential crimson wines of current occasions. The automotive marks the fiftieth anniversary of the wine in 2021, and the arrival of this classic to market in 2024.

Maserati GranCabrio Folgore Tignanello

We spoke to Maserati’s head of design Klaus Busse in regards to the collaboration and the way it emphasises key parts of the GranCabrio Folgore, the absolutely electrified model of Maserati’s four-seater vary topper. ‘We now have a long-standing partnership,’ Busse explains. ‘It’s primarily based on respect and shared values – the winery provides wine to our occasions, for instance. However we needed to take it to a different degree and the GranCabrio was the right automotive – what different machine would you wish to drive by way of the rolling hills of Tuscany?’

Resplendent in a specifically developed Terra di Tignanello paint, ‘impressed by the winery’s soil’, the GranCabrio Folgore is completed in a coppery burgundy hue that Busse likens to the hills of Tuscany at sundown. Key particulars – wheels, soft-top, brake callipers – are all completed in black. ‘We now have an excellent understanding of what makes the panorama of wine so particular,’ Busse says. ‘Our headquarters are within the nation of Barolo, for instance. I really like going to those locations and driving by way of them.’

The outside color has additionally been combined with a metallic component that provides a refined shimmer. ‘Once you method the automotive, there’s a crimson wine component that shines by way of in vibrant daylight,’ the designer says.

The inside of the GranCabrio attracts distinct parallels with the aesthetics and tradition of Marchesi Antinori. ‘Once we visited the winery, what struck us visually was their wood barrels, braced by metallic straps and with distinctive red-painted sections which might be stained by the wine itself,’ the designer says. To evoke this, the GranCabrio’s seats have been trimmed in a particular mixture of tan leather-based and Vegea, an artificial cloth comprised of grape waste.’

That is the primary time Vegea has been utilized in a Maserati, and the perforated materials is completed with vertical stripes – evoking the silver metallic bracing on the barrels, in addition to the rows of vines on a hillside – over a darkish burgundy weave. ‘We all the time attempt to inform a narrative by way of colors,’ says Busse. ‘Our vehicles generally is a canvas.’

The trim is darkish briar wooden with laser-etched patterns and textual content from the bottle label, whereas the headrests are adorned with an embroidered image that blends the Maserati Trident with the stylised solar image of Tignanello, which can also be repeated on the centre console.

Fuoriserie is the corporate’s bespoke programme, obtainable in two distinct steps. The primary is a lot of curated suggestions and specs, often obtainable in a restricted version just like the current Maserati MC20 Leggenda and Icon fashions. ‘The second is a extra particular person journey that I’m immediately concerned with,’ Busse explains. ‘It will possibly take as much as a 12 months to discover the varied points of the design.’

This distinctive GranCabrio Folgore will in the end be auctioned for charity at Competition Napa Valley’s 2024 Arts for All Gala. ‘We’re doing this for a family-owned enterprise, so it was about how we will replicate their arduous work over generations, and the soul of the land,’ says Busse. ‘It means lots to be partnering with a model like Maserati,’ says a spokesperson for Marchesi Antinori. ‘It’s a rare synergy between an icon in luxurious Italian sports activities vehicles and an icon in high-quality Italian wines.’

This distinctive partnership has given every firm the possibility to discover new methods of doing issues, whereas doubling down on their core values. As Piero Antinori says, every is present process a ‘unending problem, the obsession to enhance and continually query ourselves, to seek out greater and better high quality margins. [The car has] an awesome id and recognisability, similar to our wine.’