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Associates with Vinous founder and critic Antonio Galloni, and with a cellar that may flip you resentful, Rino Fontana is Italy’s most well-known wine collector. We sat down with the person himself to search out out extra about his journey into wine, unbelievable assortment and obsession with one grape
I’m sitting reverse Rino Fontana, an Italian wine collector that Antonio Galloni named his Wine Character of the Yr in 2023. Fontana appears to be like unassuming – like another septuagenarian that you just would possibly discover, cigarette in hand, knocking again an espresso in a sunny piazza. Sun shades cling on a string round his neck, and infrequently he rifles by way of scraps of paper that appear to function as a calendar and/or journal. I’m unsure what I used to be anticipating, nevertheless it was maybe somebody slightly extra, nicely, suave.
Fontana has been amassing wine for the reason that Eighties and is famend for his cellar, a treasure trove of outstanding vintages from Piedmont’s prime producers. Certainly, Galloni has dubbed him “Il Professore” for his intensive data of Italian wine – regardless of by no means having labored within the trade. As Fontana scrolls by way of footage on his cellphone, recalling latest dinners, he rolls off names and vintages that would go away any wine-lover speechless.
He grew up within the Oltrepò Pavese, the place his father was a stonemason, however would purchase grapes and make slightly wine for the household. Fontana was despatched to high school in Valenza, a city recognized for its gold trade – and he began working in a gold manufacturing unit in his late teenagers. Aged 24, he and his greatest buddy opened their very own jewelry workshop. It was the proprietor of a neighborhood restaurant in close by Mortara who launched Fontana to the true pleasures of wine, and a bottle of Conterno’s Monfortino that made him fall head over heels for Nebbiolo – the 1958 classic, the truth is. Since that first style, he’s opened over 150 bottles (sure, actually) of the 1958 Monfortino.
It was that wine that prompted Fontana to start out visiting producers – an journey in self-education. On the time, individuals weren’t shopping for wine, and Italy’s winemakers had been removed from modern. He grew to become associates with the likes of Giuseppe Rinaldi, Bruno Giacosa and Gianfranco Soldera, quickly securing vital allocations of their wines when few others had been exhibiting curiosity. Producers, in flip, advised he had a present – distinctive in his skill to know wines in barrel and foretell their future.
In the present day, he covers round 80,000km a 12 months visiting producers – however the overwhelming majority of that mileage is in Piedmont, for Fontana drinks – and collects – little aside from Nebbiolo. This one grape represents round 95% of his consumption, he says, with Barolo and/or Barbaresco on the menu on daily basis. He all the time has the newest releases readily available within the fridge – even some primary Langhe Nebbiolo, however at the least twice per week he’ll uncork one thing particular from the Sixties or ’80s with wine-loving associates or producers.
Whereas Nebbiolo is certainly one of many grapes to be declared “the king of wines”, for Fontana it actually does reign supreme. After I ask why, marvelling at how he might drink a lot of only one selection, he shrugs: “Nebbiolo is Nebbiolo.” After I push him, he says he loves its ageability, construction and magnificence – one thing he feels you possibly can’t discover in Pinot Noir. He recollects a latest dinner with Galloni at Il Centro in Priocca, sharing a bottle of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s 2004 La Tâche alongside a 1947 Borgogno Barolo and 1989 Vigna Rionda from Giacosa. Each the Barolos, he says, grew over the dinner – whereas the La Tâche light slowly. For him, Burgundy (even the world’s most sought-after bottles) is not any match for Nebbiolo.
That’s a controversial opinion – however Fontana isn’t a person wanting views. He dismisses the wines of Cappellano and Accomasso, whereas he has agency beliefs on how Nebbiolo needs to be made, favouring conventional winemaking with outdated oak – not desirous to really feel the wooden within the wine. He argues that too many younger producers are going to Burgundy and attempting to echo that fashion of their wines, dropping their Piedmontese id. The ensuing wines are, he feels, too technical, too clear. “Nice wine can’t be good,” he says – suggesting that these imperfections are partly what makes wine really feel alive.
Whereas essentially the most established and well-known producers dominate his assortment, he additionally likes the wines from newer names reminiscent of Trediberri, Crissante and Cascina Baricchi. Past Nebbiolo, he’ll dabble in sure labels of Sangiovese – Soldera, for instance will move muster, in addition to SanCarlo (a producer he feels rivals the previous). Montevertine’s Le Pergole Torte would beforehand have been a first-rate selection, however now he’d select La Boncia’s Le Trame as an alternative. He likes Valentini and Emidio Pepe, and used to purchase Gravner however feels the fashion modified in 2004 so stopped.
He offered his jewelry enterprise in 2000 – dedicating his time completely to wine – visiting producers, constructing his assortment and promoting to pick out events (of which Vinfolio is fortunate sufficient to be one). Fontana has round 9,000 bottles in his assortment at present. He reveals us a video of his cellar – intriguingly with most of the wines saved upright. Something publish 1990 is saved on its facet, however older wines stand proud in his cellar – one thing which he argues is healthier as soon as they attain a sure age, with the cork and humidity of the cellar extra vital of their preservation.
It’s a outstanding assortment, with unbelievable verticals of many wines. His entry appears unparalleled – receiving bigger allocations than many importers, given his historic ties. He’s the one particular person, for instance, to obtain an allocation of Rinaldi’s Brunate Cru – a wine that’s in any other case saved completely for the household. A few of his most prized bottles are Giacosa’s 1964 Santo Stefano and magnums of 1970 Monfortino (“wonderful” – he says), whereas he has a comfortable spot for the youthful 2015 Soldera.
Now aged 73, Fontana appears simply as enchanted by wine as when he first tasted that 1958 Monfortino. I ask him if there’s a wine he’s nonetheless determined to style, a unicorn that he’s nonetheless searching: the reply is not any. He’s been capable of strive each classic from the producers he loves. It’s a uncommon reply for a wine lover – however “Il Professore” isn’t your common wine collector.
– Written by Sophie Thorpe
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