Great preparation, passion, and enthusiasm were the basis of Silvano Formigli’s work from the very beginning, and perhaps when he decided to retire, the end of the era of great passions related to the world of wine began. Today he has left us for good and the loss is total. Farewell, dear friend.
We remember him with a story that Daniele Cernilli wrote a few years ago.
More than 40 years have passed, but I remember perfectly the moment when I met Silvano Formigli. The year was the 1982, He was introduced to me one evening by a mutual friend, Enrico Rinaldi, who was a sales representative in Rome. Silvano had recently become the sales manager of the Castello di Ama, then a semi-unknown Chianti company that was entering the market for the first time. “I have to introduce you to an exceptional person – Enrico told me, – someone who knows everything about wine“.
We met at a wine bar, in front of the first wines produced by Castello di Ama, the 1979 Chianti Classico and the 1978 Chianti Classico Vigneto Bellavista. At the time it was fashionable to make wines that were powerful and a bit “jammy,” as they used to say. Those were if possible the opposite. Silvano, with his unmistakable Tuscan accent, to me who was a novice but already understood something, described them perfectly. “The vineyards are 500 meters above sea level, so it is logical that the wines express themselves this way. They are sharp and agile, the acidity is evident. But look, the real Chianti Classico has always been like this. “.
We befriended each other immediately, and from then on, and for the following decades, arose between us a close relationship, one of mutual esteem, almost of complicity. When in the late 1980s Silvano left Castello di Ama it almost displeased me more than it did him. “But I have a project in my head, a small business distribution. I’m going to call it Farm Selection, with the letters S and F resembling my initials, Silvano Formigli. Isn’t that a good idea? “. It was 1989. The Fattorie Selection began with big names. One for all, Castello di Fonterutoli. Then came wines from Abbazia di Rosazzo, extra virgin olive oil from Giachi di Mercatale, and many others.
Silvano, on the strength of his experience with Ama, became one of the stars of the commercial wine world, known and respected by everyone, especially his clients. And throughout the 1990s things were going great. Then a bit of fatigue, the work getting heavier and heavier, despite the constant help of his wife and the entry of his children.
In the early 2000s a phone call. “You know, I’ve decided to take a step back. I’m going to be more of a grandfather and work a lot less “. Maybe it was ending with him The era of great passions related to the world of wine. That romanticism that has been the common basis of my and his work, and which was increasingly turning into a more professional attitude, perhaps, but much less emotionally engaging.
A few years later I left Gambero Rosso for similar reasons, and in those moments Silvano’s words were clearer to me. I then did something else, tried to relaunch, but certainly Those formidable years can never return.
