History - Our origins

Fantinel was founded in 1969, thanks to the hard work and enthusiasm of Mario Fantinel, a hotelier and restaurateur in Ravascletto, Carnia. “Paron” Mario bought the initial vineyards in the Dolegna Collio area with the intention of making top quality wines to offer his increasingly demanding and first class customers. Those were the ideal times for wine producers to become specialised wineries and Friuli, like many other viticultural areas in Italy was a virgin and promising land.

In 1973 Mario’s sons, Luciano, Gianfranco and Loris, following in their father’s footsteps with a meticulous selection, bought hectare after hectare of the best vineyards in the Collio, Grave and only later in the Colli Orientali zones, laying the foundations of a winery that, over the years, has become specialised in the production of quality wines. Along the same lines, the restaurant activity was supported by the hotel-restaurant in Ravascletto and opening of a wine bar in San Daniele del Friuli, the prototype of what later became the “Pane, vino e San Daniele” project, i.e. the “bread, wine and San Daniele” project.

Fantinel was the first to set up a partnership in Canada, with the “Collio wines” company; in ’94 Fantinel took on a further challenge with the first joint venture of its kind in Cuba producing wines for the Cuban market. At the threshold of the third millennium even more challenging projects were launched, also thanks to the third generation of the Fantinel family: Lara, Manuela, Stefano, Marco, Mariaelena and Paola.In 1988, aware of the fundamental role played by restaurants in offering quality wines and backed by the vast experience in the sector, the “Pane, vino and San Daniele” project was implemented.

Fantinel started to open up numerous wine bars with this name in Udine, Rome, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Venice, San Daniele, Milan, Bologna, Grado and Modena, making it possible to combine the Fantinel and La Roncaia wines with the best San Daniele Prosciutto (produced by its own company Testa & Molinaro) and other tasty and quick combinations, in the most simple and traditional manner.The pride and motivation to do even better, and the new Fantinel generation that was still not happy to sit back to the 2,000,000 bottles produced at the start of the millennium, always driven by the desire to bind the activity to the territory and the Friulian land, led Marco, Lara, Stefano, Manuela, Mariaelena and Paola to plan and implement the Terroir project.