According to Alberto Antonini, one of the 5 best winemakers in the world according to Decanter, we are too dependent on it.
“To make a high-quality wine, even concrete tanks or large, untoasted barrels are enough.”
Word of Alberto Antonini, one of the oenologists who have shaped world viticulture thanks to a consultancy work that sees him engaged on the five continents: from Italy to Argentina, from Chile to California, from Spain to Australia, passing through Armenia and Uruguay.
Graduated in Agricultural Sciences at the University of Florence with a thesis on Tuscan vines in danger of extinction, he then specialized in Bordeaux and Davis in California and after his first steps in Tuscany, with historic names such as Frescobaldi and Antinori, he opened up to international experience. Far from imposing a single recipe everywhere, from using botox injections that would standardize the oenological differences of the various territories, Antonini instead highlighted these peculiarities to bring out the different physiognomies, in an approach à la Anna Magnani who told her make-up artist: “Leave me all the wrinkles, don't take away even one. It took me a lifetime to make them!” In the case of wine territories, wrinkles, these distinctive characteristics, are the result of hundreds of years of interactions between organic and inorganic life that have involved the soil, the air and the vine itself. Applying a standard recipe, a chemical synthesis viticulture as well as a cellar practice based on massive extractions and barriques means silencing this biodiversity, standardizing the taste in response to a need.
Do we really not need the barrique?
“Do we want to create wines for the market or create a market for wines? That is the point. The barrique, like other winemaking practices, is invasive, it annihilates the authenticity of the wine. Alongside it are factors such as over-ripening which certainly gives more structure but takes away expression from the wine, over-extraction with practices such as bleeding which gives more concentration but takes away character, the barrique which makes the wine lose energy and vitality. And then there are two figures who can become dangerous: the agronomist, if he uses synthetic products that reduce the organic richness of the place, and the winemaker if his hand emerges more in the wines he produces than the character of the wine”.
So his isn't a provocation?
"It's not me saying we don't need the barrique. The great wines of the world say so. Then if our goal is to create wines for the market, free to be Britney Spears. However, it is musicians like Mozart and Jimi Hendrix who resist fashion: it is no coincidence that they were authentic authors, who were never interested in the market".
From chips to cement and amphora, passing through the Barolo Boys? Where are we going?
“Rather than talking about amphora, barrel, steel and cement, we should talk about wine. The goal is a good wine. The rest is a tool to get to the final result. We also need to get away from the logic of “the more the better”: it’s not that if I make a more structured wine then it’s necessarily better”.
You have adopted biodynamics in Poggiotondo – the family business in Cerreto Guidi, ed. – but also in many other businesses that you follow. Why switch to this new approach?
“It’s not actually new or even a return: it’s a reconfirmation. Biodynamics is nothing different from what was done in Italy in the past. Traditional viticulture on the Peninsula has been based for centuries on a holistic vision, looking at the moon to understand when to plant vegetables or when to bottle, no synthetic products were used, only sulfur and copper. Herbicides, to use a metaphor, are like cocaine for the soil and the vine itself: they seem to strengthen them, but in reality they destroy them. The world average for the life of a vineyard is between 18 and 20 years. In Argentina and Armenia, where mechanization with its effects has not arrived, I work with vines that are 120-150 years old and still have an optimal production even in terms of bunches per plant”.
There are more and more flying winemakers, you are an example, who follow completely different territories. Isn't there a risk of standardization in the solutions adopted?
“I will be a flying winemaker for a little longer: I have decided to buy, so I will become a sailing winemaker! Jokes aside, the risk is only there for that category of winemakers who come from a market experience and therefore tend to accommodate or at least reproduce the needs of the same. Personally, as a winemaker I am more similar to the barrel than to the barrique: I value the raw material that I find locally in various countries, that is, not only the vine but also the local people whose knowledge of the territory is a very precious resource. It is from the land that we must start to make a good wine, so the perspective is that of the winegrower rather than the winemaker”.
What growth paths for Italy?
“Understanding that markets are changing from push to pull – that is, consumers are deciding which products they are interested in and no longer those who produce or distribute them, ed. We must realize that consumers are increasingly better prepared. On a personal level, I had proof of this at a technical conference I held in China: I found myself in front of not only a young and well-nourished audience but also extremely interested and informed, so much so that the conference went on for over two hours after the end time due to the many timely questions. Another card that Italy can play is that of valorizing the many specific territories that we possess. Finally, we must work on self-esteem, on the confidence with which we present the product: we have made giant steps on a technical-qualitative level, now we must believe in it”.
Interview for ALEA Evolution, of Irene Graziotto .