Fattori

Fattori was the completion of my lucky Connect Four game, and I was finally a winner!! After a year of searching and hoping and planning and wishing on every stinking star I could see, I finally found my way to Europe. Antonio Fattori, the answer to mine, and everyone else I could convince to pray for me's, prayers. For several weeks all I knew was that the family had extended an offer for me to stay with them for two months and work for my room and board. I had no idea what kind of work I was going to be doing or what type of shoes I needed to pack. But I had a back pack and I was going to Europe. That's all I needed for the moment. Soon after I purchased my ticket and set the whole thing in stone. No way I'm letting this one get away!

Fattori family winery is in a town called Terrossa di Roncá. This town is situated in the Northeast part of Italy in the Veneto. The estate sits between Verona and Venice. Yes, that's right, not only am I FINALLY going to Italy, but I'm going to be 96.7km or 1hr and 14 minutes away from Venice. VENICE, THE Venice. The same Venice that I have dreamed about seeing since before I even knew where it was on a map. I don't remember how my obsession with Venice, Italy started, but it's always been the city of my dreams and I've got the posters, back ground pictures, and I'm sure the pre-teen "dear diary" entries to prove it. I still can't believe that I'm actually going there...this is the real deal.

Anywho, Antonio comes from a long line of winemakers. He's done some amazing things and won many, many awards. He's very esteemed and really amazing at his job. I'm excited to learn from not only someone in what we in the wine biz call "the old country" but from someone who has as highly decorated wines and family history as the Fattoris.

Thanks to our distributor Lee, I was able to get a hold of some of Fattori's wines. I just opened the first bottle the other night and I'm no wine critic, but it tasted pretty darn wonderful to me. For my wine enthusiast friends, the bottle I opened was their Fattori label Soave 2007. The color was a rich golden yellow. It had a very light sweet floral bouquet (however I would like to point out that I had to taste my wonderful wine out of a tiny plastic wine glass since we are in the middle of a move and everything else is packed, could have cut the nose a bit). The front end had a quick burst of lemon followed by a strong apricot flavor that lingered and faded into a rich butter scotch taste. This wine had a great body, almost that of a lighter style CA Chardonnay. Over all note was that it was very bold and expressive which I did not expect from the aroma. Mmmmmm...tasted like Italy :)

If you would like to read the family history or see pictures of the Fattori family estate you can visit their website at: http://www.fattorigiovanni.it/azienda.php?lang=en. Also you can find information on the amazing wines the Fattori family produces on Colleen's website: www.cmkconsulting.it.