The Italian Industrialist Making Old-School Tuscan Wines

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Pasquale Forte seems to live between two very distinct worlds. The founder and chairman of Italy’s Eldor Corporation, this Tuscan winery owner is responsible for much of the cutting-edge technology in the modern auto sector, including the design and manufacture of electronic control units, ABS actuators, charging stations, and emission-reduction systems. The son of a Calabrian farmer, Forte grew Eldor into the category leader it is today after a humble beginning assembling electronic parts for radios and televisions in his garage. In 1997, 25 years after launching his company, he returned to his agricultural roots with the purchase of the abandoned Podere Petrucci estate in Tuscany’s Val d’Orcia. Renamed Podere Forte, it now produces some of the area’s most sought after wines.

While Eldor is a pioneer in robotics, automation, and the use of AI for industrial applications, Forte’s Podere Forte estate is farmed using principles laid out by Pliny the Elder in Historia Naturalis, which the author completed just two years prior to perishing during the 79 CE eruption of Mount Vesuvius. In an era of factory farming and monovarietal vineyard management, Forte farms his 66 acres of grapevines and 600-plus-acre estate using 2,000-year-old principles including the cohabitation of pigs, cows, rabbits, and bees amid olive groves, wheat fields, and forests and a vineyard planted in the style of a classic amphitheater. In his inimitable style, he explains that his idea here is to “cultivate as we did 2,000 years ago, while staying 200 years ahead of our time.” Utilizing fully integrated organic and biodynamic farming practices, the estate’s bees produce honey, its wheat is destined for pasta, and its olive trees produce fine Tuscan olive oil. Director Ridley Scott was so impressed with the site that its wheat field was used in the original Gladiator film.

While the 1.3-acre amphitheater-shaped parcel in his 5.4-acre Anfiteatro Vineyard may appear to be nothing more than a visual nod to Roman farming ideals, Forte points out that the contours of the plantings are more than just visual. “Its shape follows the natural morphologic hill lines that gently transfer the rain that flows into the central channel connected to the artificial lake,” he tells Robb Report. While the entire vineyard is divided into 10 individually managed plots, the semicircular portion is a transition area between the windy higher part, whose calcareous rocks help create “structured and vertical” wines, and the lower, where clay soils lead to more “opulent and powerful” expressions. “Both orientation and slope are east to west for a very slow ripening process, especially in the afternoon,” he says.

Originally drawn to the area—a UNESCO World Heritage Site—because of its high elevation vineyards and soils that allow vines to dig deep and withstand hydric stress, Forte brought in renowned soil consultants Claude and Lydia Bourguignon to analyze and map his vineyards here with a Burgundian approach and to help implement biodynamic farming. Having worked with the like of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Château d’Yquem, and Domaine Leflaive, the Bourguignons were the ideal team to help Forte fulfill his dream of combining traditional framing with modern soil mapping technology. “The desire was to the best marriage between vine variety and type of soil, targeting the most representative and real wine expression of the place where they were cultivated,” he says. “The soil selection is related to the work of the Benedictine monks of Burgundy,” who laid the groundwork for the French vineyard classification system in the Middle Ages.

The Burgundians “analyzed every corner” of the estate and identified the best sites for planting vines, which all have one thing in common: the presence of crackable calcium schist rock. The soils were then classified according to its depth. If the rock is found between 20 and 31 inches, the grapes planted there go into what Forte calls his “Grand Cru”wines, Petrucci and Guardiavigna. Areas where the calcium schist is found at a deeper level—five feet or more—are designated as “Premier Cru”plots, whose grapes go into the more accessible Petruccino. Forte explains that because vines struggle more to find nutrients in the grand cru vineyards, the wines have increased structure and complexity.

While most of his wines are made with Tuscan favorite Sangiovese, Podere Forte Guardiavigna is made with mainly Cabernet Franc. This and the top-tier Petrucci bottlings, Petrucci Orcia, Petrucci Melo, and Petrucci Anfiteatro, have been known among collectors of fine Italian wine for some time, but they are a relatively new find in the U.S. market. Made with 100 percent Sangiovese, Podere Forte 2018 Petrucci Anfiteatro has a nose of blackberry, clove, and Mediterranean herbs. Polished tannins and vibrant acidity offer a backdrop to flavors of red plum, candied orange peel, dried thyme, and a note of holiday baking spice that lingers into a long-lasting finish. While wines from nearby Brunello di Montalcino are aged for a minimum of five years, Forte barrel ages his between 22 and 24 months to retain the freshness afforded by his high altitude, breezy vineyards. Thanks to that breeze, Forte says the leaves on his vines are never still. Considering his devotion to both technology and grape-growing, we doubt that Forte is either, and for that we are grateful.

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