Remembering Gianfranco Soldera

BY ANTONIO GALLONI | APRIL 4, 2019 

Segue Versione Italiana 

In a brilliant career that spanned five decades, Gianfranco Soldera established himself as one of the world’s most inspired and iconic winemakers. His untimely passing in an accident last February leaves an immeasurable void. Soldera’s wines remain an enduring legacy of his remarkable life and complex, dynamic personality.

Born in 1937, Gianfranco Soldera grew up in Milan, where he spent the first part of his professional career as an insurance broker. As a young man Soldera tasted the great wines of Piedmont and later became close with many of those growers and their families. Giovanni Conterno, Bartolo Mascarello, Giuseppe Mascarello and Battista Rinaldi were all peers, as was Josko Gravner. Soldera remained close with those growers, and later, their children, until his passing. After trying unsuccessfully for years to find land in Piedmont, Soldera chanced upon a magical piece of ground in Montalcino. At the time, the prevailing wisdom on vineyards dictated that the best sites were south-facing, as these were the warmest sites. Back then the issue was achieving full ripeness. But Soldera had a different philosophy. He chased luminosity above all else. And so Case Basse was ideal. The west-facing site was perfectly suited to capturing the entirety of the day’s sunlight. The first vines were planted in 1972. Shortly thereafter, Soldera released his first wines from Case Basse.

Multimedia: Gianfranco Soldera in his cellar

I was fortunate to start buying Soldera’s Brunellos before they became prohibitively expensive, although they were always pricey by Brunello di Montalcino standards. Several private cellars I bought became my personal education to these wines. I always marveled at how gracefully Soldera's Brunellos aged. But it wasn’t just the Brunellos that were fabulous. Soldera’s first release, the 1975 Rosso dei Vigneti di Brunello di Montalcino (Rosso from Brunello di Montalcino vineyards), made from vines planted in 1972, was still fresh and wonderfully expressive when I last tasted it a few years ago. And the finest wines – the 1983, 1990, 1999, 2002 and 2004 Riservas – to name just a handful, were and remain truly epic.

I had an appointment to visit the estate in 2017, in late August. The weeks leading up to harvest are always a fascinating time to see vineyards, as all the work in the field has been done, and it is easy to see who has worked diligently, and who has not. At the last minute, Soldera cancelled with no explanation, something that had never happened before. I imagined he preferred to concentrate on his vineyards given the very early harvest that year. A few days later Soldera wrote, “I apologize, but Saturday the 26th of August I started the harvest, which was very hard. Yesterday I finished destemming the fruit, maniacally sorting berry by berry. I have two tanks with superb musts that will blow you away when you taste them (or the wines made from them). Given the delicateness of the harvest and the berry by berry selection, I absolutely had to be in the winery and supervise all of the work. I would have never imagined picking my Sangiovese in August, but one has to always be willing to learn and follow nature to the maximum.”