Interview with Oscar Farinetti, Fontanafredda, Eataly, Grand Tour

21 Oct Interview with Oscar Farinetti, Fontanafredda, Eataly, Grand Tour

Fontanafredda has been a strong advocate of biodiversity and natural cultivation methods. How are biodiversity and sustainability integrated into your winemaking philosophy?

They are fundamental. More than 30% of all atmospheric pollution comes from agriculture which pollutes the earth, the sky and more. As I decided to take care of the agriculture division of the family business, the most important part of which being the production of wine, my focus has been on organic agriculture, which I believe to be fundamental for the planet and for Italy. Italy can do organic agriculture and be uncontaminated because it is a peninsula located in the center of an extraordinary sea. The great biodiversity is due to its geographical position. The good sea winds meet those of our hills and mountains to create a unique microclimate.

There are 1,200 varieties of grapes to make wine in Italy, the second largest number in the world after France with 200. Spain is the largest producer of olive oil, Italy produces a sixth of it, however in Italy, there are 538 olive cultivars, while in Spain there are only sixty. For this reason, my philosophy on wine has been to go to the various regions to produce the indigenous cultivars of the various regions. From there, I transform them into wine according to the true oenological traditions of those regions and cultivate the land in a biological way, without using chemical fertilizers or preservatives. There is a bit of a risk because nature is challenging. Perhaps it produces a little less wine, but it is better, more natural, healthier and authentic.

The results of this approach are very positive because our international customers have understood. We sell 80% of what we produce abroad. The whole world is willing to pay a little more for our organic and healthy wine. I am opposed to wines that are too expensive, as if you are paying a fine to obtain a bottle. On the other hand, I am opposed to cheap wines that are obtained through very intensive cultivation, mechanical harvests and a hasty enology. We try to produce a healthy and organic wine with a sustainable price for the public. We sell at 20% more purely because it is healthy and organic and we are definitely happy with the results.

Fontanafredda took a significant step outside its traditional territory with the acquisition of Il Colombaio di Cencio in Chianti. What strategic vision inspired this expansion into Tuscany and how does it fit into the broader future of Fontanafredda?

We have two main wineries: Fontanafredda and the other is an older winery, Borgogno, near Barolo. We have made various acquisitions with these two wineries. With Fontanafredda, we acquired the Zamo vineyards in Friuli, near Venice. We also acquired Il Colombaio di Cencio in Castellina in Chianti. With Borgogno, we acquired a winery in Sicily called Carranco. In addition, we invested in other Italian winemaking companies both in Franciacorta, in Lombardy, and Veneto. In summary, we are currently producing wine in Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto, Friuli, Tuscany and in Sicily. This totals about ten million bottles. The turnover far exceeds €100 million.

Chianti is a wine that I like very much. It is produced with a typical Tuscan grape variety called Sangiovese. In the area of Castellina in Chianti, the Sangiovese variety can be cultivated in a very good way and the best classic Chianti in the world comes from here. We launched a project called Green Renaissance. It means going back to the ancient values of nature. I want to combine these values with the best modern technologies. For us the future is about the combination of nature and technology. These two values ​​must travel together. A technology that is not bound to nature through harmful chemicals, but rather through modern intelligence, allows us to stop using unnecessary chemical fertilizers, while respecting nature. That is the Green Renaissance. It is tied to deep cultural values. Every year, when our new Barolo is launched, we publish a book with a story by a famous Italian writer. Firstly, we dedicated it to hope and then we moved on to courage and to trust. Finally, we moved on to optimism. The wine of the next harvest in 2025 will be dedicated to tenacity. It means to never give up or surrender.

Emanuele Trevi is an award-winning Italian writer (Premio Stega in 2021) dedicated to tenacity. An important Italian designer will do the bottle design. If the writer is a man, then there will be a woman and vice versa. The book celebrates the natural values of our wine and the cultural values of our wine. We created a foundation that specifically deals with this. Anyone who buys a bottle of Barolo will receive this book for some healthy reading.

Eataly has transformed the way the world experiences food, wine, beverages and Italian culture, with enormous global success. Looking back, what do you believe has been the most powerful element behind Eataly’s international success?

I am no longer an administrator of Eataly, but I can explain it as a founder. Eataly is a company that was born to tell the world about the wonders of the Italian agro-food sector. Italy, as a country, has an amazing biodiversity. Its simple cuisine is appreciated around the world because it is based on raw materials. French cuisine, invented by chefs, was born in restaurants, but Italian cuisine originated from home kitchens with recipes invented by our grandmothers and great-grandmothers. Our cuisine is based on the market and not on the technique of the restaurant. We can speak about Italian cuisine in terms of agriculture to transformation to cuisine to the actual dish. From there, we can talk about creating places where the restaurant integrates with the market and our teaching rooms. This integrated three-dimensional technique was the first of its kind. It is a place where you can buy what you eat, eat what you buy and study how to produce a dish respecting the traditions of the history of agriculture.

We went around the world to tell this story. After the first openings of Eataly, which were in the cities of Turin and Bologna — Turin because it is my capital and Bologna because it is the agricultural capital and Emilia-Romagna is the Italian region that best represents Italian cuisine. They call it dotta and grassa. Bologna has the oldest university in the world thus, dotta (learned) and grassa (rich) because it is a strong, hearty cuisine deeply tied to the land.

Over the years, the cuisine has become less rich, but it remains very good. I always mention to everyone that Bologna’s tortellini in broth is my absolute favorite Italian dish. After the Italian cities, we opened New York and Tokyo and then the rest of the world. The world seemed to receive this format of integrating the market, restaurant and teaching to understand the roots of Italian cuisine very well. We did not just bring pasta and pasta, but rather the famous regional dishes of Italian cuisine. We also explained the differences between regions. There is a huge difference between the cuisine of North Italy and the cuisine of the South.

The Grand Tour Italia can be described as a theme park of Italian food and biodiversity. It seems that many of the lessons learned from wine and Eataly have flowed into this project. How does “Grand Tour Italia” enrich your vision of a culture that people can experience firsthand?

We called it Grand Tour Italia because between the 1700s and the 1800s, there was a trend to do the Grand Tour in Italy. Young people from wealthy European families were sent to Italy to see the beauty, because it was already considered the most beautiful country in the world. They wanted to see Venice, Colosseum, the Tower of Pisa, Bologna, Sicily, Naples and more. One of these young travelers was called Goethe who wrote an extraordinary book called Viaggio in Italia. It became a world-class bestseller. He writes about our country travelling from region to region. Eataly proposes this technique of travelling in Italy, creating a place divided into twenty spaces, one for each Italian region. In each regional space, people can buy and learn. We try to tell the world that Italy is composed of regions that have stories and traditions. On one side they are very similar and yet very different on the other side. Even the villages have a crazy food culture, which includes a lot of patriotism.

In all your initiatives, you have always promoted values such as education, sustainability and culture that go beyond profit. What principles do you believe every entrepreneur should embrace in today’s complex global landscape?

Firstly, harmony and sustainability with their employees. If the company makes a profit, this profit must be redistributed to those who work there including the entrepreneurs and employees. Secondly, we need to be in harmony with the planet. About 90% of scientists are advising us to change the way we make products and use energy. We live in a social model called the consumer society with the product in the center. If we do not change the way we make and sell, we will be stuck with this problem of destroying our planet. It is very important that scientists tell us about these issues and encourage us to behave better. Volunteer associations need to protest, we, the entrepreneurs, have to step into the field. We have to use new types of energy and create products and services that have a new relationship with the planet. I have been committed to this since day one. I will continue to do so.

My message, which is also that of Green Pea shopping mall, is the payoff. We do not need to talk about these things with severity. We have to tell it from beauty to beauty. We have to make it beautiful to behave well. In Italy, we use the word figo, which means cool or awesome. We have to like ourselves first if we want to act better. To achieve this, we need to rethink what wealth really means. Together there must be a bit of profit to honor commitments, pay debts and collaborators.

I disagree with those who believe the problem can be solved through happy degrowth. Decline is never happy, because the poor are always the ones who suffer most. It goes against human nature, which drives us to want to improve and to grow. At the same time, I am also against those who deny the problem and keep buying energy from fossil fuels. There are also those who believe in President Trump (who broke the Paris Agreement) and those who see the Green Deal as just a cost. In my opinion, it is crazy to consider the Green Deal a cost. On one hand, people say it is too expensive but the same people want to triple military spending.  Imagine if we redirected what we spend on weapons toward research on new energy sources. We could provide the whole world with solar, wind and natural energy. We need to change our mindset. I am convinced that we entrepreneurs can set a good example in this regard.

What is your final message to USA Today readers about Italy, its institutions and its entrepreneurial landscape?

I want to say that America, seen from Italy, is a wonderful country. It is a great market of beautiful people. I want to tell Americans that we, even the new generations, must never forget that the Americans endured tens of thousands of deaths during the Second World War to save Italy from fascism and the Nazis. The Americans made an extraordinary gesture that we must never forget.

America is the cradle of democracy. Europeans need America to continue to be a democracy and to give direction to the world. I want Americans to know that we continue to have great confidence in them and their investments even if President Trump imposes high taxes on us. We will come to America and work hard.