Spotlight on winemaker Antonio Fattori

This week, we’re featuring Antonio Fattori, the owner and winemaker of Fattori Wines in northern Italy.

 

Fattori is a third-generation winemaker. The family began making wine at the beginning of the 20th century, when Antonio’s grandfather planted 17 acres of vines in Veneto and started producing and selling wines locally. His son officially took over in 1970, expanding the operation by purchasing more vineyards and making more wines.

 

In 1979, Antonio — who had studied winemaking at both the University of Enology in Conegliano and the University of Dijon — took the helm. Today, Antonio owns 161 acres of vineyards, and they’re all located within three miles of the winery.

 

In my opinion, it’s too much to say that one has a winemaking “philosophy.”

We are craftsmen. I believe first and foremost that a winemaker must have knowledge of his terroir — his soils and specific territory. It is only by having an intimate knowledge of your land that you are able to transform it into a vineyard and to turn your grapes into wine.

I don’t believe that a lifetime is enough time to gain all that knowledge. I also don’t believe in flying winemakers — they make wines without soul. These wines may be richly flavored, but they say nothing about the terroir or where they are from. I want to create wines that will be taken seriously, that are long-lived with minerality. I also want them to be enjoyable – wines that are important but also fun.

 

The Fattori Danieli 2009 Soave DOC.

 

Daniel Schuster is my favorite winemaker. Wine is my life and my passion and I’ve been living around it since I was 15 years old. I have traveled a lot and met many people in the wine industry, and Schuster left the deepest impression on me.

In 2001, I visited him in New Zealand and tasted a Chardonnay in his cellar that was 20 years old, yet light, elegant and refined. It was the exact image of a wine that you wouldn’t think could age, yet it was 20 years old.

 

That same Chardonnay from Daniel Schuster in New Zealand.

 

That would be a bottle of Azienda Agricola Marion Amarone from 1988.

 

I would say it is the chemistry and all the chemical evolutions that take place. I would like to make a white wine without using sulfur dioxide that is as good as those made using conventional vinification techniques. I am almost there, but not quite yet.

 

I like the South Island in New Zealand — it answers almost all of my desires. There are two magnificent wine regions there, Central Otago and Marlborough.