ANTONIO BRAGATO: Friaul in Berlin

By Stuart Pigott - last revision: 01.11.26

Antonio Bragato is a unique wine producer in the province of Friual in Italy, because the main focus of his career was founding the Il Calice wine bar in Berlin and turning it into a cult location. Now he assists his son Louis in managing Il Calice, but is primarily a winemaker and promoter. He does these things not just with passion, but with a vision of Friual wines. This and the Bragato wines themselves grew out of Il Calice’s first incarnation, so let’s step in a time machine and let me take you there…

As we step into Il Calice on a winter's evening in the early 1990s we find an austerely modern shrine to New Italian Wine. Very quickly we realize that - willingly and with little hesitation - we're going to spend much more money on wine than we intended when we were still on the street. But the faces of the guests - successful and self-confident Berlin! - tell us that in Il Calice everything tastes better than in any of the other Italian bars and restraurants in Berlin, perhaps even THE BEST ANYWHERE. This was the first wine bar in Berlin - maybe in all of Germany? - where every glass and decanter is aviniert before wine is poured into it. And Antonio’s smile while he does this with practiced ease is an essential part of the experience, of this ritualized relaxed sophistication. That Antonio is charming, intelligent and handsome goes without saying and that makes Il Calice irresistible!

However, Il Calice is also a Three Dimensional Projection Field into which the customers project their longings for all the things they are convinced are Italian: warmth, emotionality and spontaneity, combined with stylishness of the designer kind. Nobody here doubts that all these things are present in great abundance, and they seem to confirm we are all special people. What a seductive feeling!

The wine was an essential part of this, and back then everybody knew that Italian vino was the New Royal Palace of Wine: Chianti was the Prince and Barolo was the King. But the bottle I desperately wanted was the ravishingly Beautiful Queen: Vigna L’Apparita from Castello di Ama, a Tuscan Merlot (yes, how very Anti-Sideways of me!) I drank it several timesat Il Calice, thankfully not always on my own tab. Today it weighy in at Euro 250!) Around the time I first visited Castello di Ama in 1998 that I began to understand how an evening at Il Calice was a theatrical performance of German Longing for The South (the history of which goes back at least to the young Goethe). Whe wine bar was the stage and all of us eating and drinking upon it merely players.

But, everyone had a great time, and not many failled to register the refinement of the salumi and the wines, because they were served with such style; it was their spotlight! Antonio was extremely good at selling, but he also had a great feeling for what would best suit each particular group and each situation. In short, he's a great sommelier always commited to guests' pleasure. And that shapes how he sees wine’s role: not as an excuse for geeks to geek out; not as a means of inflating the winemaker’s ego; nor as a bunch of labels for status-obsessed drinkers to fetishize.

That's why the Bragato wines aren’t big and self-important, like a bunch of the Fancy Friual Wines that get three glasses and high scores from the Italian critics. Instead, they’re gastronomic in a very Italian way, and also have a restrained Germanic elegance. I think there’s something French about the careand precision with which they’re crafted. This combination makes them so distinctive and appealing. I added the backstory, because it too is interesting, and we storytellers do need to tell stories. However, Antonio's partner in the project since the beginning in 2004, Gianni Maccari, must also be mentioned. Maccari previously worked for 20 years for Livio Felluga, one of the Big Players in Friaul, and he cultivates the wines and does the cellar work.

The contemporary Bragato story began a few months back when Antonio organized a vertical tasting of his wines that was too interesting to miss. You see, tit was the only vertical tasting of Friual wines I was ever invited to. The best-known producers seem entirely focused on moving the current vintage „through the pipe“, i.e. the market. I’m not knocking the importance of wine sales, but if that defines a wine, then that imposes a limit on how exciting it can be.

The tasting proved conclusively that the gastronomic and elegant style of the Bragato wines enables them to mature very well. It also confirmed something that Antonio said at the beginning: „A good white wine that was matured in oak and tastes of oak should still be able to dance. If you give the wine enough time, then this is so much easier than if you have to rush in the cellar.“ Antonio never rushes and his white wines dance!

A few words about the contemporary Il Calice: the ambience in the orginal location was extremely cool, and it was Antonio, his team and the guests who filled it with warmth. The current location is more friendly with a Italian-German feel to it, and the wine list is much more diverse than it was in the early days! The ambience is a great fit with Antonio’s wines.

Finally, the tasting also featured a small vertical of the Sanbaca Pinot Neros that Carlo Franchetti makes in the Toscana. Yes, Pinot Noir in Tuscany! The secret to this is that the half hectare vineyard is located 650 meters above sea level. Carlo discovered it at the beginning of the 1990s. 2012 was the first vintage and the operation then definitely fell into the garage winery category. „It was pretty appalling…“ Carlo admitted, „the first vintages were very rich and structured, more like Amarone!“ 2021 was the turning point. „Now, I aim for 13%, maximum 13.5% alcohol. I am not trying to make Burgundian wines.“ 

THE NEW RELEASES

Bragato  Friuli Colli Orientale  Sauvignon  2023 - ??% / At once generous and succulent, but also fresh and mineral this concentrated and well-structured sauvignon. Plenty of yellow grapefruit and bell pepper character. Still quite tightly wound, but it’s not yet released (it was bottled juast 3 months ago). 92 (SP)

Bragato  Friuli Colli Orientale  Friulano  Praephylloxera  2022 - ??% / A giant of freshness in which the minerals and crisp tannins exactly interlock on the vibrant and compact palate. Great energy and the kind of structure that top white Burgundies have, but with less oak!  Still very youthful, but it will surely age fantastically. Pure Tocai Friuliano from vines planted before the First World War. 96 (SP)

Bragato  Friuli Colli Orientale  Chardonnay  Rio delle Rose  2022 - ??% / Only a delicate touch of oak her, but the combination of restrained richness and creaminess with fine tannins and vanilla flavor is spot-on! Such a beautiful balance at the long silky finish. Only just beginning to show what it’s made of. From 80 year old vines. 95 (SP)

Bragato  Friuli Colli Orientale  Quar  2021 -??% / A bit animal and meaty with healthy, if slightly rustic, tannins and a lively acidity, this is a striking expression of the Refosco grape. Crunchy red berry fruit and a touch of citrusy freshness on the rather sleek palate. Long vibrant finish. 93 (SP)

NOTE: Only for paying subscribers the notes for all 21 wines tasted can be found below.