I’m a catalyst for ideas, a tool in winemaker’s hand. I’m an oenological and agronomic consultant.

Since young age, I’ve breathed the barrels’ aroma.

I was born under the sign of the vine in Corno di Rosazzo, in the extreme North East of Italy, from a family of winemakers, butchers, woodcutters, teachers, merchants, and agronomists.

I grew up surrounded by the spices of my grandfather’s workshop and their penetrating and sincere aromas, enjoying the meticulous meat and wood processing performed by my father, who was a butcher but also a lumberjack.

In that strip of Italian land called Friuli, I could follow 2 paths: producing wine or chairs.

I chose the wine path and at a very young age I began studying the winemaking processes among the most important companies in the North East of Italy, starting a long journey that led me to my current profession: the oenologist and agronomist.

Today, I help improving the quality and positioning of the most established companies’ wines.

All the experience and awareness that I pour into my work every day, comes from an important part of my life path: my journey into the wine world.

I lived among the scorching heat of California, the extreme conditions of Texas, and Mexico, where all the certainties are questioned. I returned to my homeland, but I headed south to the slopes of Etna, and then to the beautiful Tuscany.

I returned home in my Friuli just recently, but my journey hasn’t stopped.

I keep travelling throughout the vineyards of Friuli, Sicily, Umbria, Romagna and Lazio. 

But I also venture abroad, among the vineyards of neighboring Slovenia up to the south-east of the Balkans, in poorly explored areas where there are still pre-centennial phylloxera.

I think a human being can live consciously just after fifty, perhaps sixty, vintages.

And in 1999, I had lived too few of them to not being in the need of someone who could couched me in vision and method. So, when Pierpaolo Sirch, a rising star of the wine-growing technique, advised me to find someone who could teach me on the art of the vine, I followed his advice without reservations.

I’ve met many people who, in one way or another, left their on mark on me. One of them is the great Giorgio Grai, whose art in blending has seared into me. 

However, among all, I recognize basically 3 masters.

The first is Franco dalla Rosa, director of the Ca’Ronesca, a winemaking company in Dolegna del Collio, Italy.

He was very patient  and knew how to involve me in the job. He was a fervent supporter of elegance, and the wines he produced in the late Nineties are simply perfect, even if you drink them today.

My second theacher is Enrique Ferro, an American of Mexican and Piedmontese origin. He was one of those people able to open your mind, shake all of your certainties, and take you to new and unthinkable worlds. He’s been one of the last to collaborate with Andrè Tchelistcheff, in his full force.

And eventually, on Etna’s slopes I met Lorenzo Landi from Cottanera. He had a meticulous method, a vast experience, and performed a manic job in the vineyard: it took me a lot of effort to follow him. He is my third teacher.

Wine and life are just the same: it’s important reaching your goal, but even more counts how you get there and with whom.

The research for me is chiefly looking for that kind of people that helps you express yourself or leads you to bring out the best of you, people you can share thoughts or projects with.

The meeting with Frank Cornelissen on Etna and our heated discussions over a rain of wine glasses opened up a new world to me. He was the first I heard talking about biodynamics applied to wine, a new technique I would have used after a while at the COS company, in Ragusa, where I also experienced the production of wine in amphorae.

In Cormons, Friuli – Italy, Davide Feresin and I revolutionized the Pinot Gris, making it coppery and transversal. We also rediscovered old vineyards of Tocai Friulano and fought to make them known. Meanwhile, Fulvio Bressan and Michele Moschioni showed me that red wines of Friuli could be just great.

Finally, six winemakers from Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy, and I brought together their wineries under the unique Talis Wine label, thus we coined the idea of “Diffuse Winery”.

Thanks the Faina Counts I got acquaintance with Umbria and its vineyards, before returning to Etna to support Peter Wiegner in the refinement of his Etna Rosso and in the development of a technique that would have allowed grapes such as Aglianico and Fiano to grow at almost 1000 meters of altitude.

In Sicily, I also work with Filippo Rizzo, from La Moresca, who not only was able to make great wines in that part of the island famous only for prickly pears, but also managed to enter the Noma of Copenhagen.

Then, I travelled to the heart of the Balkans, in Serbia, where I’ve been involved in the Budimir Wine project: an amazing working group with the desire to recover an area with secolar vineyards.

I then returned to Italy, in Tuscany, where I met the Bulgari family and I helped them in the project of the excellence wine of Podernuovo a Palazzone, in San Casciano dei Bagni. Meeting them, changed me, since I had the opportunity to bring forward new ideas and confront myself with the typical organizational approach of the big companies in the luxury industry.

In San Casciano dei Bagni, I also met Stefano Petri the owner of the Greatestate Real Estate Group, who shared with me his plan to open an agricultural department of his real estate. So, I decided to move to Tuscany.

Here, in the basement of my house, I met Fabrizio Ratti, craftsman and artist of clay and wood. Together we began discussing about winemaking in amphora.

We spent more than one year among drawings, tests, interventions to improve every aspect, from the most banal to the most unpredictable, until we established Sirio Anfore, a company manufacturing of microporous ceramic amphorae for wine making and refinement.

And my journey continues …

Today:

Sirio Anfore – Colmello di Grotta (Friuli Venezia Giulia) – Vino Budimir (Serbia) – Riccardo Scamarcio (Puglia) – Frank Cornelissen (Etna-Sicilia) – Vini Campisi (Sicilia)

In the past:

Peter Wiegner (Etna-Sicilia) – La Moresca (Sicilia) – Cos-Vittoria (Sicilia) – Podernuovo a Palazzone – Famiglia Bulgari (Toscana) – Benanti (Etna-Sicilia) – Pianogrillo (Sicilia) – Rudinì (Sicilia) – Kristalvin (Slovenia) – Talis Wine (Friuli Venezia Giulia) – Davide Feresin (Friuli Venezia Giulia) – Conti Faina (Umbria) – Caronesca (Friuli Venezia Giulia) – Cottanera (Etna-Sicilia) – Tenuta di Blasig (Friuli Venezia Giulia)

Winemakers friends:

Carolina Gatti – San Biagio Vecchio – Le Coste di Gradoli – Michele Moschioni – Fulvio Bressan – Arianna Occhipinti – Graci – Marco Tinessa – Mongioia