Dry Extract is Falstaff’s mini-interview feature. We ask top professionals in the world of wine, food and travel to answer thirteen deceptively simple questions in quick-fire fashion. The answers are more revealing than you think.
Andrea Franchetti is the man behind two ground-breaking wine estates, Tenuta di Trenoro in Tuscany and Passopisciaro in Sicily, both in Italy. Half-American, half-Italian, he owned restaurants in the US and Italy and was a wine importer in New York City before deciding to make wine in Tuscany. This led him to study in Bordeaux under mentors like Alain Vauthier of Ausone and Luc Thunevin of Valandraud. He continues to push boundaries at both his estates.
The best advice I ever got
Was to stay small.
My life motto
Things that count happen unexpectedly.
I am currently reading
The landscape in Val d’Orcia
My most played music track
A Day in the Life by The Beatles
If I didn’t do my current job I would be
A haruspex [someone who reads the entrails of sacrificial animals to tell the future].
Skill I don’t currently possess but would like to have
Divination
My favourite kind of exercise
Forget about the future.
I relax while
I’m absent-minded.
I collect
Dressing gowns
My essential newspaper/magazine
The Calendar of Frate Indovino
My desert island wine
Monfortino
I have learnt a lot from
Peter Vinding-Diers
My last meal and sip will be
Mutton and Chenin Blanc
