World mourns death of legendary Italian wine maker, Andrea Franchetti

The global wine fraternity is mourning the death of Andrea Franchetti (Age 72yrs), a renowned winemaker with estates in Tuscany and Mount Etna. Mr. Franchetti was battling cancer before he met his fate. He was considered a visionary who inspired many winemakers following the success of his prestigious estates – Tenuta di Trinoro in Tuscany’s Val d’Orcia and Passopisciaro on Etna’s northern slopes.
Before becoming a winemaker, Franchetti owned a restaurant in Rome, where he grew up. The son of an American mother and an Italian father, he moved to the United States in the early 1980s and distributed fine Italian wines in New York.

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The charismatic wine producer was memorable for his accuracy and attention to detail. An attest to this was his detailed vintage reports that helped him devise clever ideas to produce classic wines. His wines expressed as much complexity as possible from their terroir.
Franchetti was one of the first viticulturists to bet on Cabernet Franc under the Tuscan sun, and in 2001 he was one of the pioneers of the rediscovery of Nerello Mascalese in Etna with his estate Passopisciaro. He also produced a great Tuscan white based on Sémillon; a rare sight.

 ‘Tonight, poetry lost a great wine producer and the world of wine, one of its poets,’ wrote Ursula Thurner, Franchetti’s PR manager for several years.