Fornacina is an organic estate at Località Fornacina in the Montalcino region in Tuscany, Italy. It makes red wines under Rosso di Montalcino DOC and Brunello di Montalcino DOCG. Ruggero made his first Brunello here (600 bottles.) in 1981 on his own. In 1982 he more wine was made. In 1983 his son Simone Biliorsi made his first Brunello here, with Attilio Pagli consulting.

Owner: Simone Biliorsi. His father is Ruggero (b.1937. Still alive in 2014. Did not drink wine). Simone’s partner is Janne Enevoldsen (Danish). They have one son.

Staff: Attilio Pagli has consulted here since the mid-1990s).

Production: Around 20,000-25,000 bottles.

Sales: 90% exports. Until 2012 USA was the main market–importer: Villa Italia Imports, South San Francisco, CA; tel. (650) 873-6060. Also Canada also a key market. Now Belgium, Holland growing. Also Danes visit the estate on bus tours and take the wine home on the bus.

Background: Simone’s father Ruggero was a farmer who also worked just up the road at Costanti, where he was born. Ruggero did not work under Andrea Costanti though. Working there allowed Ruggero – who worked both in the vineyard and winery – to learn how to grow and make wine. Ruggero’s father, and Simone’s grandfather, was called Giuseppe. It was Giuseppe who bought the land here in 1970 having worked as a sharecropper for the owning family (“late mezzadria”). At the time straw, hay, olives, and vines were grown. Giuseppe worked with oxen. There were no tractors. The pigs would eat the acorns (la ghianda) from the trees to fatten up.

Ruggero’s son Simone has no qualifications, so he learnt from his dad. Simone was born in 1961 and went to school in Montalcino. In the 1980s the boom began with Banfi buying land. Really took off in the 1990s. From 1998 Simone Billorsi bottled his first Rosso under his name. The EU made money available for young imprenditori which is why so many new estates were created then.

Vineyards: 5ha of 100% Sangiovese, & 100% registered as Brunello. However some Sangiovese wine is sold as Rosso di Montalcino DOC for cashflow and to make sales of Brunello easier as the two wines go hand in hand for most trade buyers). The vines are in two places:

–3ha around the house/winery at Fornacina, south-east of Montalcino, below Conti Costanti, at 400 metres on soils of galestro and clay (no sand) and medio impasto. 4,500 vines/ha. Cordon.

–2ha further south in Castelnuovo dell’Abate. This was purchased (was olives) in 1997. Came on stream in 1998 but really on stream from 1999. All in one spot, 2 blocks divided by a white road. 4,500 vines/ha. Cordone speronato. Alkaline soils. 100% galestro, very stony. South-west facing. The neighbours are Ciacci Piccolomini, Giacomo Neri on side. Uccelliera above. “Lots of small estates with vines in the north bought land here to add a richer element to the wines.”

Viticulture: Hand pruned. Hand remove water shoots in spring. Leave more leaves on the south side in summer.

Cover crops: Broad beans (Vicia faba) or ‘favino’, plus lupins. No cereals. Sow every other row in both sites. No plant-based sprays. No compost. Sulfur and copper-based sprays only. The owners did use beneficial predators at the winery vineyard when there were problems with red spider mites. 

Organic certification: 2003 First vintage with full organic certification (ICEA).

Winemaking: Hand picked. 2.5 days of harvest. CdA picked 15 days before here. Each block has its own vat. 8-9 lots usually (of which 3 from Castelnuovo dell’Abate). 45 q/ha. Steel for fermentation with 2 pumps per day. Racked. All kept separate after first racking. Vinaccia to Nannoni. Wine back to steel. Racked. MLF in steel. Racked in spring to botti in Feb/March. 20-30hl Slavonian oak. No tonneaux or barrels. c3 yr botti for BdM. Back to steel for bottling. Roughly six rackings in total from start to finish.

Red wines

Rosso di Montalcino DOC: 2003 Certified organic for the first time. Nice crisp fruit, wild berry with nice weight (Anteprima 2006). | 2011 10,000 bottles. Bottled Nov 2012. Very well made, quite sappy, openknit (Anteprima 2013). | 2011 At the consorzio with Ian d’Agata Tuesday 28th May 2013: Bright crimson with a salmon orange hue; some herbaceousness and mocha on the nose over ripe red cherry fruit; lacks perhaps a bit of clarity; firm tannins allied to spiky red cherry fruit and mint on the palate. Attractive savouriness. | 2012 4,666 bottles. Vat. Very nice clean plump style (Anteprima 2014). At the winery on 18th June 2014 sweet ripe plum and cedar, round, even, nice evolution, decent length, nice and smooth, well done, warm end. | 2013 10,000 bottles. Nice and bright, soft and fluffy, nice centre, bright, with lift (Anteprima 2015). | 2014 Fluid, bit uneven (Anteprima 2016).

Brunello di Montalcino DOCG, Fornacina: 2000 Chocolate notes, plenty of fruit, mid-palate a little light, but simple, clean although a hint of VA (Anteprima 2005). | 2001 Decent (Anteprima 2006). | 2008 9,300 bottles. 36 months in botti plus some barrel ageing. Nice weight, some wild tannin, decent, traditional style, and I guess reliable (Anteprima 2013). | 2009 9,000 bottles. 15%. Nice, bit soft, easy if a bit confected (Anteprima 2014). | 2009 Bright red cherry-ruby colour. Ripe crushed red berries with mint on the nose. Very savoury-sweet palate with mid-weight tannins/fruit. Youthful and fresh. Classic mix of sweetness/savouriness and directness. Good(ish) length. Effective at the Consorzio Tues 27th May 2014 with Ian d’Agata and others. | 2009 At the winery on 18th June 2014 shows more obvious richness to the rosso and some bake with menthol too, sweet and savoury, nice weight and sweetness, good, just a bit untidy at the end. | 2010 10,000 bottles. Nice and sweet, some animal, cedar, starting to open and evolve (Anteprima 2015). | 2011 Nice plump, sweet ripe, very nice (Anteprima 2016). | 2012 Bright fruit nose, sweet fruit palate with some green at end. Fluid, easy, needs a bit of time to round out (Anteprima 2017).

Brunello di Montalcino DOCG Riserva: 2001 Bottled. | 2006 Bottled. | 2007 2,660 bottles. | 2010 Dense, sweet cranberry (Anteprima 2016).

Sales: 90% exports. Until 2012 USA was the main market–importer: Villa Italia Imports, South San Francisco, CA; tel. (650) 873-6060. Also Canada also a key market. Now Belgium, Holland growing. Also Danes visit the estate on bus tours and take the wine home on the bus.

Contact

Fornacina

Podere Fornacina,

Località Fornacina 153, I-53024 Montalcino (SI = Siena), Italy

Tel+39 0577.848464 | Website www.cantinafornacina.it