Having a successful career, deciding to change course, and starting to produce wine. This is a path shared by many winemakers who have built successful wineries. Here are three examples from northern, central, and southern Italy.
The world of wine is full of winemakers and producers in general who come from from other sectors and that, through their winemaking, they have literally changed their lives. Some began several decades ago. And today it can be difficult to distinguish them from those who come from families with a tradition spanning several generations—and sometimes even centuries. However, the stories of those who began with a true renewal of their lives are often truly fascinating. It seemed like a good idea to share three stories of new winemakers—or, at any rate, of people who had no prior experience with vineyards or wine barrels.
Architect Marco Piacentino and the company Socrè
The first is that of Marco Piacentino, who, about twenty years ago, decided to combine his successful career as an architect with that of a wine producer. He did so by purchasing a few hectares of vineyards in none other than Piedmont, in Barbaresco, in the prestigious Roncaglie area.
That is how the Socré winery came to be, and that is how its Barbaresco Roncaglie was born. A red wine made from Nebbiolo grapes, of course, aged in 20-hectoliter barrels. And produced using partly innovative winemaking techniques, including 20-hectoliter wooden vats for fermentation. Small French oak barrels for subsequent aging. Elegant, austere, and age-worthy—despite being a “newcomer,” he managed to produce a true gem, among the best wines of its kind.
Erik Banti and Morellino di Scansano
Erik Banti ’s story, on the other hand, goes back even further. As it began in the world of wine in 1981, when he— a young and brilliant tour operator from Rome—decided to move to the Maremma. And start making wine in the Morellino region, using the local Sangiovese grapes, first in Montemerano and then in Scansano.
As a true “city dweller,” he moved to the countryside, completely changed his life, and became one of the finest winemakers in that area. Today, many consider him the “father” of Morellino. The man who succeeded in making it known around the world and one of its most successful and classic interpreters. There is certainly a “before” and “after” Erik Banti when it comes to that wine, and few would have imagined when he started that things would turn out that way.
Salvatore “Turi” Geraci and the Revival of the Faro DOC
We’re heading south to Santo Stefano Briga, between Messina and Taormina—in Sicily—on the hills leading up to the Peloritani Mountains, overlooking the Strait. Salvatore “Turi” Geraci was and is an architect and a gourmet.
Since the early 1990s, he has become one of the icons of Sicilian viticulture. He revived the family winery, which had been largely abandoned, and began producing a legendary wine, the Faro Palari, made from Nerello Mascalese grapes with additions of Nerello Cappuccio and Nocera. It is an enveloping, spicy, and quintessentially Mediterranean red that is now considered one of the very best and longest-aging Sicilian wines. He continues to work as an architect and is a great lover of gastronomy, but in the world of wine, he is known above all for that extraordinary wine that literally changed his life.
