Profile: Giovanni Folonari

Giovanni Folonari looks the
archetypal Italian gentleman – tall, dark, handsome – but
the Tuscan winemaker has the animated drive, articulate
expression, and Stentorian voice of a marketing professor.
Having divested the Folonari winery (and name) a generation
ago, Giovanni and his father Ambrogio recently split with
members of their famous winemaking family to concentrate on
creating a diversified, impressive portfolio of upper-tier
Tuscan wines. We met at Kobrand’s Italian Trade Show at
Boston University’s spacious Culinary Arts Building, where
Folonari proudly displayed his wines, and celebrated the
extraordinary variables that affect each cuvee.

“Q”
CHANGE Wine
consumers’ perceptions evolve on various products over the
years. Yet a producer whose wine fits into a certain market
niche cannot suddenly change its quality and price. My
family has been in the wine business for many generations.
My grandfather and father thought that the Folonari wines
were great at a certain price point, but realized that
consumers were about to change their ideas &endash; drink
less but higher quality – and sought to make more
distinctive wines. So, in 1968, we sold the Folonari winery,
eventually bought by Gruppo Italiano Vini

TO EACH
HIS OWN We already
owned Ruffino, which my grandfather had bought in 1913, and
wanted to concentrate on it and other estate wines that
express more distinguished terroir. With that in mind, we
bought some estates – mainly in Tuscany. In 2OOO, the family
made a split – we were too big. My commercially oriented
relatives kept Ruffino, our larger winery. My father
Ambrogio and I – ever-involved in producing wine and
planting vineyards – inherited four estates: Nozzole, Cabreo
(previously marketed as Ruffino), Spalletti (Chianti), and
Fattoria di Graciano (Montepulciano). We wanted these
because we felt Tuscany was ideal for both traditional and
innovate winemaking of terroir-oriented wines.

OUTWARD,
HO! We knew we
needed our own individual estates and vineyards. No grower
is going to increase his labor by green-harvesting his
vineyards, only to reduce his crop, when he’s being paid by
the ton! Since we know and love Tuscany, we bought La Fuga,
a boutique Montalcino estate to make Brunello, Rosso and a
special cuvee. We bought land in Bolgheri, named it Campo al
Mare, and planted 7O acres of vineyards from scratch – watch
for the first vintage, 2OO3, next year. We also bought land
and planted vineyards in Maremma (Montecucco denomination),
first vintage 2OO4. Finally, in 2OOO, we bought our only
non-Tuscan estate, Novacuzzo (Friuli, Colli Orientali) where
we replanted 75% of the vineyards.

WITHIN
REASON We price our
wines fairly, not too high. We don’t want to get crazy.
Tuscan producers who raised their prices too high in the
199Os are now paying the consequences. You cannot go back on
wine prices except, well, a few percent from vintage to
vintage. If you sell a bottle for $2O in 2OO2 and then try
to sell it for $15 in 2004, clients think you took advantage
of them in the past, or your quality has plunged. We price
not by demand but by cost of investment.

HANDS
ON Though we own
several estates, my father and I can manage this company
more easily as we only make a little of everything. Job #1
is still the winemaking. I studied fermentation science,
enology and viticulture at UC Davis; my father studied
winemaking his whole life. We don’t feel (as many do today)
that all you need is a good enologist (which, by the way, we
have) and consulting enologist (who comes at 5 or 6 critical
times to help direct the cuvees) and leave them solely
responsible to make the wine. We have to be directly
involved.

TEACHING
TOOLS We also know
it’s important to explain and educate people about wine. We
go around all year explaining to the trade, consumers and
opinion leaders about our wines and their origins. Since we
care most about the positive imprint of terroir on our
wines, who can do this job better than we, as owners and
producers? (Best methods, routines for explaining? Different
style or content for
wholesalers/sommeliers/consumers?)

MARKET
WATCH My father is
this week in Italy, Russia and Belgium. I visit the USA at
least three times a year – there’s a lot of understanding
and interest in our wines among the American people. After
Italy (45%), the US is our biggest consumer (30%);
Switzerland, Japan, Belgium and Scandinavia follow. We’ve
started well in Russia, and we’re about to start in
China.

MAKING
WINES Wine comes
from its vineyard – the fruit is by far the most important
component in the equation. You can be the best winemaker,
but if you start with bad fruit, you can’t do much. You can
have the best grapes in the world, but may ruin them in the
winery. We want to plant the best varietals and clones for
each vineyard. We handle the grapes gently, especially while
they’re still on the skins, and likewise ferment them
gently, keeping each vineyard, even lot, as separate as
possible, as each makes its own wine. The human factor is
important – no database can predict how each wine will
develop and age – but should be transparent. When making the
blends, we must make wine taste like its terroir, not like
the hand of the enologist or owner.

UPPING
the ANTE Complexity
and concentration are what people look for more and more in
wines. We Tuscans started making ‘Supertuscans’ when the
Chianti Classico denomination still demanded up to 2O% white
varietals. (After 1985 people ignored the law; then they
changed it: prior to 1997 it was maximum 5%, after 1995 it
became 3% optional.) With high concentration wines, tannins
must be mature – if the skins are green, the wine will be
green. Above all, you must keep yields low. A vine’s energy
is sapped by feeding 1O grapes; better 5 or 3. We’ve
increased the number of vines per hectare in new vineyards
to improve selection when pruning, but we still have to
settle for very low yields. The Chianti law allows 7.5 tons
per hectare, but we often don’t reach 2 tons with our old
vines, some of which were planted around 197O, the era when
Tuscan farmers ceased sharecropping.

STAYING
TRADITIONAL America
sees lots of high-concentration wines. You may notice that
among highly concentrated wines, elegance can be
compromised. On one hand, you get tons of fruit and huge
structure, on the other they’re often rich and jammy, and
better away from the table with a cigar than with meals. So
Chianti Classico is coming back, getting more appreciation.
We don’t want to change the style, unlike some producers,
who increase concentration in hopes to achieve higher scores
and more attention. We want Chianti to taste traditional,
but in a more modern way, concentrated but still with high
acidity. We want to keep the elegance, which works well both
alone and at table.

RATING
GAMES With so many
wines available – in the world, in Italy, even in Tuscany –
the final consumer doesn’t know what to drink. Joe Consumer
seeks writings and scores to help him make selections. Over
the last twenty years the proliferation of magazines,
columns and newsletters is a phenomenon that we producers
must be grateful for, as it places more information and the
positive images of wines into the hands of consumers. But
it’s also true that these arbiters, knowledgeable experts
and wine lovers, look for the power, complexity and
structure, and can appreciate them. Your average consumer
reads the ratings, buys high-scoring wines, but not being
used to drinking such wines may find them a little too
tough. He is often more amenable to wines that are good at
table if not necessarily high-achievers at tastings and
competitions.

SANTE!
When we make our vin santo we hang the grapes over boxes,
not lie them on trays, where the bunch weight can crush the
skins. That means two cuts in the vineyard, the harder one
with heavy scissors through the stem to make a natural hook.
Such labor, but what a reward!

CHIN
CHIN! My favorite
wines? Tough question! Outside Tuscany, some wines from the
south have high potential, especially from Basilicata, the
only region that has mezzogiorno strength yet retains
elegance. Aglianico del Vulture is a grape with immense
potential, yet still almost undiscovered. I love Piedmont,
mainly Barolos and Barbarescos; I like the white wines from
Friuli (chardonnay) and Alto Adige (sauvignon and
gewurztraminer are very appealing). I really love Burgundy;
we can’t make really good pinot noir in my vineyards, though
we did interesting things with chardonnays, even aged
ones.