Gianfranco Fino has a strong and distinctive personality, and in his wines you immediately sense the traits of a different vision and of the method with which it is applied to winemaking.<\/p>\n
Gianfranco Fino’s wines<\/a> reach the most important tables, win over the most expert palates, earn remarkable accolades and champion Puglia’s wine production, bringing it into the national spotlight; with Gianfranco Fino, the Gambero Rosso Winegrower of the Year title came to Puglia in 2010<\/strong>, and for the first time to the whole of central and southern Italy.<\/p>\n To understand what lies behind these wines, let’s start with the producer and his way of working.<\/p>\n In an interview with Corriere della Sera, Gianfranco Fino revealed that at the age of 14, in his first year studying oenology in Locorotondo, he asked his father to take on a small abandoned plot of land. That is where it all began, with that plot and a viticulture manual, together with a keen spirit of observation: a horse between the rows, used by an elderly local farmer, is one of the images that shaped Gianfranco Fino’s winemaking and professional path.<\/p>\n Using horses in the vineyards instead of machines<\/strong> is an ancient practice, now very widespread in France, where Roman\u00e9e Conti is its standard-bearer. Inspired by the Burgundian approach, Gianfranco Fino chose the horse as not only a natural but also a better way to work the land; and so he entrusted his vines, which reach surprising ages, to Bruno, a big Murgese draught horse. Everything is healthier, the ecosystem is preserved and the longevity of the vines is assured.<\/p>\n Because history is another essential element in Gianfranco Fino’s winemaking. It lives on in the vines, some of them as old as 90<\/strong>, and in the training method chosen for them, the Apulian alberello (bush vine)<\/strong>, a traditional way of growing vines used in the past and an expression of a strong local identity.<\/p>\n A good few years have passed since the first vineyard was bought in the countryside around Manduria, but the commitment to making wines solely from old vines remains a cornerstone of Gianfranco Fino’s estate. Yields are low, production costs high and the work hard, but the other side of the coin is exceptional quality in both grapes and wine. Such long-lived vines produce only a few bunches per plant, perfect grapes thanks also to the strong balance between foliage and fruit; everything is in symbiosis: nature, human work and Bruno’s.<\/p>\n Native Apulian grapes vinified as single varieties<\/strong>: Primitivo di Manduria and Negroamaro are Gianfranco Fino’s two specialities.<\/p>\n With the former, excellent results come from careful work in the vineyard, aiming for perfect ripeness and restrained yields; with Negroamaro, heavy thinning is carried out to leave little fruit on the vines and encourage optimal ripening. <\/p>\n In the cellar the work is done at low temperatures with repeated d\u00e9lestage, a winemaking technique that encourages greater extraction of polyphenols from the skins and, as well as oxygenating the must, carries it through to complete fermentation, ensuring dry wines with minimal residual sugar.<\/p>\n But beyond the different techniques in both vineyard and cellar, Gianfranco Fino brings passion and spirit<\/strong> to his wines, guiding his production philosophy and decisive in every choice; the name Es, for example, borrowed from Freud (the Italian for the id), stands for pleasure, pure passion without rules, the same passion that drives the work and willpower of small artisan winemakers.<\/p>\n A Primitivo di Manduria DOC<\/strong>, Es is Gianfranco Fino’s multi-award-winning wine<\/a>.<\/p>\n Produced in the countryside of Manduria and Sava (TA) from Primitivo alone, grown as Apulian alberello, Es is a wine with no half measures: it is pleasure in its purest form, the kind that follows no logic. Wines like this are either loved or hated; there is no middle ground.<\/p>\nWho Gianfranco Fino is and how his work began<\/h2>\n
Gianfranco Fino: outstanding wines made in the spirit of small craftsmen<\/h2>\n
Es Gianfranco Fino<\/h3>\n