Italian Vignerons conquering Spain: Fantini Wines takes over the former Venta la Vega winery

By entrepreneurial spirit and enlightened vision, Italian wine producers have long gone to the conquest of the vineyards of the New World, investing in companies in the most important wine territories in America, from Virginia to California, from Oregon to Argentina, and beyond, but without neglecting the historical wine-producing countries of Old Europe, but in those areas where the hectares planted with vines have competitive prices and the markets good potential. Fantini Wines aims to increase wine production tenfold in Spain. This is the path traveled, from Abruzzo to Spain, by Fantini Wines, the Ortona-based wine group and export leader from Southern Italy (owned by Platinum Equity, with a record Ebitda of 27.5% and a turnover of 84 million euros in 2024), which, in recent days, acquired the ownership of the former Venta la Vega winery, a prestigious and technological boutique winery, in Almansa, in Castilla-La Mancha, one of the most vocated but also least known wine regions, where, at 1,200 meters above sea level at the foot of the legendary El Mugrón mountains, is the largest single plantation of the Garnacha Tintorera variety in Europe with very old vines. The goal is to “plan for a development that was unthinkable until yesterday, with the possibility of tenfold the current Iberian production within a decade and increase its high level of quality even more”. The group, in fact, landed in Castile as early as 2021, with its neighboring subsidiary Finca Fella, in Alpera, a mosaic of 1,300-1,400 hectares, always devoted to heroic viticulture (at 900-1,250 meters), a “guardian” here, too, of old vines, and an already established brand to which, now, the new acquisition will be integrated. We are talking about 60 hectares of land, but with purchase rights on 180 hectares of highly prized vineyards, and a modern, structured winery that boasts strong development potential: suffice it to say that today Finca Fella produces just over 1 million bottles a year, which could multiply to 10 million and, considering that, in all, today, Fantini’s total production is 22-23 million bottles - distributed in more than 90 countries - in 10 years the Spanish subsidiary could become the group’s largest company. In addition to providing Fantini with an important winemaking asset, the acquisition will, in fact, associate with it the winemakers already linked to the winery, a reality on an 800-hectare estate, 231 of which are vineyards.
The new acquisition is “a very important blow abroad”, says Fantini, who, since its beginnings in 1994, starting from Ortona in Abruzzo, little by little has become among the leading exporting companies in Southern Italy, thanks to “a careful policy devoted to the highest quality and marketing research”, which has led to the creation of new labels and expansion into emerging markets, including Africa: the acquisition of ex Venta la Vega does not disprove the consolidated business model that the wine group has successfully pursued in recent years-in short: not having its own vineyards, but making agreements with local vine-growers-custodians, flanking them with young and selected winemakers and thus forming a “federation” of wineries, scattered mostly in the South of Italy, in which the care of the vines was entrusted directly to those who know all their secrets - but it complements it and becomes functional “to the striking results obtained for a few years precisely in Iberian soil”.
Where, launching bottles on the market that have achieved flattering and surprising results in terms of both sales and quality, “Finca Fella is growing so rapidly that we felt the need to be able to increase production volumes while being able to continue to elevate its already high levels of quality”, explains Valentino Sciotti, Fantini founder and ceo. “We always remain faithful to the concept of boutique winery, which is never about quantity, but about the ability to work with the utmost attention to detail. As we grew more and more, we were in danger of not being able to do that anymore. We have always said that we want to grow while at the same time growing the territories in which we go to operate, through agreements with the people who already work them”, Sciotti adds, “we always want to be an opportunity for all the areas where we arrive and for the farmers who have been working there perhaps for generations”.
So it will be in this case as well. The former Venta la Vega winery, like already the Finca Fella vineyards just a few kilometers away, is located in one of the most winemaking regions, but also the least known for the sector: Castilla-La Mancha. Specifically, it is in the Alpera-Almansa area, a few kilometers from Albacete, in the southern part of the region, not even six kilometers away from the Comunidad Valenciana, an hour and a half drive from Murcia, something less to reach the sea in Alicante: nothing to do with “mainstream” wine-making Spain, that of La Rioja or Catalonia, Duero or Andalusia. Perfect Fantini style, then, which in recent years has always enhanced the extraordinariness of marginal and neglected productions in Abruzzo, Puglia, Campania, Basilicata, Sicily, Sardinia. But Almansa is a little paradise for grapes: the estate, located at the foot of the legendary mountains known as El Mugrón, constitutes the largest single plantation of the Garnacha Tintorera variety in Europe. It is located at an altitude of 1,200 meters, which favors the creation of distinctive natural microclimates; but water is scarce, forcing heroic farming, but of excellent quality, because the conditions are perfect for the production of unique wines. The vineyards are very old: “true heroic viticulture”, points out Tommaso Ciampoli, founding partner and administrator of the company, “the vines have to survive in the near absence of water. So they stay low, practically at ground level, the harvest becomes something extraordinary. The density is very low, three meters by three; the yields per hectare really minimal; the quality, however, amazing”.
“We felt the need to prepare ourselves to manage growth because we always want to guarantee the increased levels of attention, processing and quality that we can boast today: it is the main element that explains our success and we certainly don’t want to lose it along the way”, adds Sciotti. “To achieve this, we needed a much larger and much more technological structure”, just like the one we just acquired. “I believe very much in this choice, also because Finca Fella’s wines make a harvest of awards wherever they are presented and achieve incredible sales performances in every market they enter. We are very but very enthusiastic about our Spain project, which means wines with an absolutely exceptional quality/price ratio”, Sciotti concludes. And such is the success that Fantini - which exports 96% of its production abroad - has already been forced to land its Finca Fella bottles in Italy as well, given the high demand.