Remembering Franco Bernabei

While visiting Il Molino di Grace in April prior to Vinitaly, I learned some sad news. Winemaker and manager Iacopo Morganti revealed that Franco Bernabei, the winery’s consulting enologist since its inception, had been diagnosed with cancer. Owners Frank and Judy Grace, their son Daniel, Iacopo and I toasted Franco with a bottle of his Rohracher Brut Trento Riserva 2020, his family’s personal bubbly, and sent him the photo and our well wishes. Nonetheless, it was a shock to hear of his death on July 2.

Bernabei was a driving force behind the renaissance of Italian wines, particularly in Tuscany, yet was as humble as he was talented. Born in the Veneto, Franco arrived in Greve in Chianti in 1973 to work with the Folonari family at their winery. He set up his company, Enoproject, in the town center and embarked on a consulting career that included Folonari, Selvapiana, Fontodi and Fèlsina, among others.

“Franco Bernabei has been one of the best Italian winemakers, and a real protagonist of the renaissance of Italian wine back in the 1980s,” Giovanni Manetti, co-owner of Fontodi and president of the Chianti Classico consortium, told me. “I started to work with Franco 47 years ago and he’s been my mentor in the art of winemaking, also becoming a close friend. He told me since day one, ‘I’m here to let you make your wine,’ without imposing his own style but helping me to express the terroir characteristics. He played an important role in the creation of our Flaccianello della Pieve in 1981.”

When I visited Fattoria di Fèlsina in 2013, Franco was there, joining me for a tasting of multiple vintages of the winery’s flagship Fontalloro with proprietor Giovanni Poggiali. “Franco’s work will enlighten our way and that of Italian wine for the next years for sure,” said Poggiali. “ [He was] not only a great technician but a man of big faith, strong convictions and, most of all, giant determination. A true warrior and an incredibly generous person.”

Frank Grace hired Bernabei in 1998 after founding Il Molino di Grace. Bernabei proved integral to the quality and success of the wines. Iacopo Morganti worked closely with Bernabei over the past dozen years. “I met Franco through my parents many years ago—back in the early 1970s—when he first arrived in Greve to work with the Folonari family,” he recalled. “He was at Molino di Grace from the very beginning. Since then, he has been with us every step of the way—supporting our philosophy and guiding all our wines into the bottle.”

“Franco was highly knowledgeable, confident, precise, and punctual; you could always count on him,” he added. “He gave me a great sense of security and was always there when needed. He leaves a huge void. He was an overbearing person, in the good sense of the word, and filling that gap will be very difficult.”

Franco Bernabei poses in Tuscany in 1992 with just a few of the iconic wines he helped make. (Fred Seidman)

I first met Franco in New York in the mid-1990s, when I was covering the wines of northeast Italy. In 2010, at a tasting of the Empson portfolio in the importer’s Milan office, his wines spoke to me with their purity and sense of elegance, particularly the Chianti Classicos from Il Molino di Grace.

The following year, I visited Il Molino di Grace for the first time, with Neil Empson, but prior to that visit, we went to Bernabei’s Enoproject lab in Greve for a tasting. Bernabei explained that Enoproject was a team of 10 family members and friends, including his two sons, Marco and Matteo, representing the fifth generation of the Bernabei family in the wine business.

It was there that Franco told me he never wanted to follow trends. His philosophy was to examine the soil, find the correct grape for that soil type and make the best expression of wine from that site.

Afterwards, we drove to Il Molino di Grace for a tour and tasting, culminating in a wonderful dinner with many wines in the famous tree house. Franco didn’t speak English and my Italian is terrible, but we communicated in French. I saw him annually during Vinitaly to preview the new vintages, until this year.

I will miss his big hug, his passion and enthusiasm for wine.