Fattori

Late-19th-century origins

The family surname was formerly Gastaldi. “Fattori” denoted people who worked in the service of large landowners. Around the end of the 19th century, Daniele and his son Antonio became farmers on their own land and began planting vines on the hills of Terrossa.

The family made sweet wines, filtered them through old Dutch filters that remain preserved at the estate, and sold the wines to taverns in Verona and Vicenza.

Antonio, born in 1888

Antonio was born in 1888. After returning from the Great War, he found the vineyards destroyed by phylloxera but continued working the land. He was remembered in old age as an exceptionally persistent worker who went barefoot, dug the vineyards during winter and hoed them in summer.

Daniele and the formation of the present cellar

Antonio was followed by his son Daniele. He passed the nucleus of the present cellar to the next generation, together with a family reputation founded on honesty, respect and dedication to the land.

Antonio takes over

The present narrator, another Antonio, assumed responsibility at the end of the 1970s. He was the first member of his branch of this Veneto farming family able to undertake formal study of vineyards and wine. His involvement had begun in childhood: after school during harvest, he supervised a Garolla destemming machine.

Antonio continued studying, travelling, learning from winegrowers around the world and experimenting, with the declared objective of joining innovation to tradition and expressing the relationship between soil and climate in the wines.

Expansion of vineyards and cellar

Over approximately half a century, Antonio reinvested his earnings in the cellar and in new vineyards. The holdings expanded into Valpolicella through the Col de la Bastia plateau, into the Lugana DOC area and into Friuli, while retaining the family’s Soave and Durello origins. In the home territory, the search moved toward progressively higher sites on Monte Calvarina.

The next generation

Antonio continues to regard every harvest as a new source of learning and experimentation. A younger generation is approaching the business, and he is beginning to transmit the knowledge accumulated during his career.

Fattori holds SQNPI certification for integrated production. This system is intended to minimize synthetic plant-protection products and fertilizers as well as water and energy consumption, while maintaining product quality and respecting environmental and human health. The certification is presented as part of the estate’s commitment to sustainability.

The Bastia vineyards are specifically identified as organically cultivated. No equivalent whole-estate organic claim is made for the remaining holdings.

Harvesting is manual throughout the currently described vineyards. Most grapes are collected in 10 kg crates; material intended for drying is collected in smaller 6 kg crates. Picking dates extend from early September into late October according to variety, site and intended use. One Garganega selection divides harvesting between the end of September and the end of October, while grapes intended for dried-grape production may remain in drying rooms for four to five weeks or until February.

Winemaking employs several distinct processes adapted to white, red, dried-grape and sparkling production.

Fresh white grapes are generally fermented in stainless-steel vats. Some wines remain on their own yeasts until the spring following harvest. Selected Garganega is dried before fermentation; depending on the intended result, drying lasts four to five weeks or continues until February. Fermentation and maturation may combine steel with 500-litre oak barrels or 30 hl oak vessels, followed by as much as one year of bottle ageing.

Red grapes from Bastia are fermented in steel. Alcoholic fermentation may be followed immediately by malolactic fermentation. Valpolicella can be matured for seven months in 30 hl oak and then seven months in bottle. The traditional Ripasso process referments a portion of Valpolicella on Amarone skins to extract their remaining constituents; maturation then takes place for 12 months in 500-litre oak followed by one year in bottle. For dried-grape red production, bunches remain in a drying room until late November or early December, after which they are crushed, fermented in steel, taken through malolactic fermentation and aged for 24 months in 500-litre oak plus one year in bottle.

For Durella sparkling bases, whole bunches are pressed without destemming and fermented in steel. The base wine remains on its lees in steel until the beginning of the following summer. Tirage takes place eight months after harvest. Bottle ageing on lees lasts either 36 or 60 months; riddling is performed manually on pupitres. After disgorgement, the wines rest for a further six or twelve months before release.