The fight for Fiorano
Alessia Antinori and Alessandrojacopo Boncompagni Ludovisi are battling over the legacy for one of Italy’s most legendary wine estates. Roger Morris delves into this ‘he said, she said’ controversy.
Who owns the legacy of Fiorano, one of Italy’s most-legendary wineries?
If its terroir that is important, then two distant cousins – Alessia Antinori and Alessandrojacopo Ludovisi – each inherited half of this old wine estate, located in southeastern Rome between the Ciampino airport and the town of Fioranello, upon the death in 2005 of estate owner and retired winegrower, Prince Alberico Boncompagni Ludovisi.
Beyond that, there is only controversy.
She owns the only existing plot of Fiorano old-vine grapes. He has the original Fiorano wine cellars.
She has direct lineage to the Master. He had a day-to-day relationship with the Master in his last years.
She is the 26th generation of one of the most-respected names in world wine-making, “Antinori.” He appears to have strong legal rights to the name “Fiorano.”
Her winery is named “Fattorio di Fiorano.” His winery is named “Tenuta di Fiorano.”
She says the two can work together. He asks, “why should we?”
A Princely Wine
By all accounts, Prince Alberico Boncompagni Ludovisi was a complex and in some ways brilliant man. He inherited Fiorano in 1946, gradually ripped out the existing vines and replanted Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Semillon as well as Malvasia di Candia.
There were several things that made Fiorano wines legendary in addition to the odd – for the area – choice of grapes. In time the wine community discovered the three Fiorano wines – a rosso, a bianco and a Semillon riserva – were not only very good, they could age well for decades, even the whites.
Second, the Prince used largely organic growing methods in a time when agrichemicals were hugely popular.
Third was his personality. By all accounts, the elder Alberico could be quirky in both social and business dealings. People who wanted to buy his wines were to show up at his winery with the exact amount in cash only – no change returned – and were often locked in a room until the transactions was complete.
As he got older and decided he wouldn’t carry on winemaking, Alberico ripped up his vines after the 1995 vintage and quit making wines.
Alessia’s story
Alberico’s only daughter, Francesca, married Marquis Piero Antinori, whose family had been making wines, largely in the Florence area, since 1385.
Piero and Francesca had three daughters, Albiera, Allegra and Alessia – the 26th generation – who worked in the family wine business.
“Grandfather was this Roman prince who would go around the estate in a tweed jacket,” Alessia remembers. “He asked us to help him distribute his wine, which we did.” When I visited the Marchesi Antinori estates in 2009, each sister individually spoke fondly of their late grandfather and their expectations to continue his work.
Although all three were part of the inheritance, it was decided that Alessia, now living in Rome, would manage Fiorano.
Alessandrojacopo’s story
Due to illness, the Prince spent his last years in the city, away from the estate, and a cousin, Prince Paolo Boncompagni Ludovisi, and his son
Alessandrojacopo came to run it. “Prince Alberico uprooted his vineyards before I moved to the Tenuta,” Alessandrojacopo told me recently.
“By my living there, he came to realize that I could carry on his legacy, and so he ceded to me the rights to replant the vineyards. I did so following his indications and making wine, Fiorano, which he tasted and approved of.”
Her estate
“We were surprised to find four rows of Cabernet Sauvignon and four rows of Merlot on our half of the estate, which was about 350 hectares, that grandfather didn’t pull out,” Alessia says. Beginning in 2011, she personally began restoring the vineyards using the massal technique.
Today, she has 14 hectares in vines, including Semillon. But Alessia also stresses that the estate still farms grain and cattle, as did her grandfather, and has planted a hectare of vegetables, introduced sheep for cheese-making and sells farm produce at Fattoria di Fiorano.
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His estate
“After my uncle died,” Alessandrojacopo told me, “my father and I inherited the part including the farming activities, the historic wine cellars and all the structures involved with livestock raising.
That is what was and is today Tenuta di Fiorano.” He planted Cabernet and Merlot, as his older cousin Alberico once had, but said the elder man agreed that the whites could be changed from Semillon and Malvasia to Grechetto and Viognier.
He also does other farming in addition to grapes and hints at “some new projects and experiment in the works.”
Her wines
Her first production was 510 bottles, Alessia says, under the label of “Fiorano.” She started selling in Italy and had plans to launch in the U.S. in late 2015 and early 2016.
His wines
Alessandrojacopo’s first vintage was 2006, the year after Albierco died, a rosso released in 2012. “Already with my first vintages of Fiorano I [have] won important recognitions both from leading wine guides and consumers,” he says, and sells his wine in several countries, including the U.S., also using both “Fiorano” and “Fioranello” on the labels.
Clarifications
There may be some understandable confusion on the part of readers who Google “Fiorano.” First, there is also another Italian wine with the name Fiorano, a Montepulciano d’Abruzzo.
Second, many bottles of Alberico’s original wines from the last century are still on the market, not to be confused with either cousin’s wines. Third, there are contrasting wine media accounts of what is going on at Fiorano.
The incident
Things came to a head on Saturday, Oct 24, of last year in New York City. Alessia had just finished narrating a $175 sit-down tasting at the Italian Wine Merchants in the city of her wines and her grandfather’s wines, of which IWM still has a considerable supply.
Earlier in the week, she and her young son had attended a gala lunch in the city for her father, Marchesi Piero Antinori, who was releasing the English version of his book, Tignanello, recounting the birth of his famous Super Tuscan.
According to Alessia, two men who had been asking questions during the presentation then served her with legal documents. Beyond that, she says she prefers not to discuss the matter.
Alessandrojacopo, without mentioning Alessia directly, told me when I pressed the matter, “My farm estate Tenuta di Fiorano has the exclusive rights in European Union and the rest of the world to the brand names ‘Fiorano’ and ‘Fioranello.’ Unfortunately,” he continued, “I have been subjected to many acts of counterfeiting and have been forced to take legal action to protect my industrial property and rights.”
Original intent
What were the Prince’s intentions, and how should we read his actions in his last days? Some have claimed he pulled out the vines because he didn’t at the time have a successor in mind and didn’t want anyone else making wine.
However, he himself later claimed that the vines were simply too old. While there is no doubt Alberico disagreed with his famous son-in-law on how to make wine, there is little indication that he had any acrimony with his granddaughters.
Similarly, after he had retreated to his hotel room, he apparently also came to embrace Alessandrojacopo’s presence at the estate. And perhaps, since he split the estate between the two, the Prince would not be at all surprised to see the current controversy that has unfolded.
How will it all end?
There are several options, the most obvious ones being that Alessia and Alessandojacopo will fight it out in court, or they will find a way to settle their differences and make wine together – although that seems unlikely – or separately.
Whoever ends up with the rights to use the names “Fiorano” and “Fioranello” – and Alessandrojacopo appears now to have the upper hand – there is nothing to prevent the other from making wine under another name while still using the background of the legendary estate as part of their story.
Two decades after Alberico pulled out his vines and 11 years after his death, the fight over his legacy, like his legendary, age-worthy wines, still exhibits plenty of vigour.
