Fuori Mondo

Fuori Mondo is one of the smallest, most idiosyncratic wineries in Tuscany, and it emanates from the poetic vision of one man: Olivier Paul-Morandini.

Paul-Morandini has a humanist, slightly mystic outlook. He clearly draws energy and inspiration from spheres far from his Maremma home. However this stretch of the Tuscan

Coast, with its pine wilderness, its sea breezes that carry the musk of the macchia and echoes of bandits and Etruscans, is inspiring in its own way.

In 2003, he discovered a wine here that entranced him. He had to meet the people who grew it. Stubbornly, like someone in love, he kept coming back every year, and in 2008, the aging owners could see his passion for this place called Volpaiole, and their wine, and they offered to sell it to him. “In a second I changed my life for that wine, in a way that I will never do again,” he says.

Since 2010 Olivier has tended his vineyard here, crafting wines that are utterly honest and transparent, counted in the thousands of bottles. He has approached his project with a sense of quiet reverence from the beginning. He says, “I didn't want to delegate the knowledge and so I decided, with my ignorance, to start from scratch; defragmenting the tradition to approach each element separately at a pilgrim's pace.”

Part of the vineyard were two plots that were co-planted with 12-15 different grape varieties in 1930. Olivier decided to vinify all of them separately in 2011. “Here was another undiscovered world to me,” he says. “I decided to start a journey with Alicante Nera, Canaiolo Bianco, and Ciliegiolo that were traditionally used for blending.”

Today he does everything by himself, but always with the help of Dominiqué Génot of Mas Llossanes (responsible for many great wines from Caiarossa) who assists with biodynamic practices as well as tasting trials.

The wines are primarily monovarietal expressions of Ciliegiolo, Alicante Nera, Sangiovese, Carmenère and Cabernet Sauvignon, and while most wines are made every year, the names of some cuvées change from year to year, recalling other wine mystics like Sine Qua Non’s Manfred Krankl. There is a deeply personal, soulful feel to Fuori Mondo.

Nothing impedes the expression of the earth here. The wines are raised in neutral vessels, including two massive 18 hl Carrara marble eggs. Many are made with scant sulfites, with the residual sulfite level listed on the label in grams per liter. Certified BioDyvin, the domain follows the four basic principles of biodynamic farming. “We spend a lot of time in the vineyard, every year and for every stage,” Olivier says. “Nothing is left to chance, and we have no objective other than to accompany the vine as best we can to allow it to flourish according to the hazards of each vintage. For this reason, some wines are not made every year.”

Olivier is originally Belgian, of Italian parentage, and for much of his career he worked in the European Parliament. In 1999 he founded EENA, the European Emergency Number Association, with the goal of organizing the EU’s efforts around the 112 emergency number, which functions the same as America’s 911. He is also a founder of TOWA (Transparency for Organic Wine Association), a group advocating for the labeling of all ingredients contained in food. He is a man of passion and quiet dedication, letting his wines do most of the talking.

Fuori Marmo

Olivier calls the Fuori Marmo wine “a journey within a journey,” a project he initiated with the help of Paolo Carli, CEO of Henraux quarries, and Yannick Alléno, chef of the Michelin three-star Pavillon Ledoyen in Paris.

What began as a whim became a serious project between the three: what if a wine could be aged in a vessel of only marble? Five months and €200,000 later, they had their answer: Carli produced two 18-hectoliter ovoid amphorae, hewn from white marble from Seravezza, weighing over two tons each.

30 months later, in December of 2022, the first vintage of Fuori Marmo debuted at Pavillon Ledoyen: a Cabernet Sauvignon IGT Costa Toscana 2019. Only 1,000 standard bottles, 120 magnums, and 80 double magnums were made via this uncommon method. Olivier is pleased with the result, saying the marble has imbued the wine with “an incredible telluric dimension.”

The Terroir

Volpaiole is located 150-350m above sea level, a series of clay-schist slopes facing south and southeast. In local dialect, the word “Volpaiole” means “Fox corner.” The vineyard is located roughly in between Bolgheri and Suvereto.

The vines cover 10 hectares, and are surrounded by natural parks and forests that teem with wildlife, just 10km from the beach and the Tyrrhenian sea as the crow flies. The smell of the macchia (garrigue) is pronounced here, carrying aromas of wild fennel, mint, and diverse wild herbs.

Olivier cultivates his Ciliegiolo, Alicante Nera, Canaiolo bianco,Sangiovese, Carmenère and Cabernet Sauvignon vines with the utmost respect for this land and its creatures, using biodynamic and organic methods exclusively. The transition to biodynamics with Demeter Italia began in 2015, with training by the late, legendary biodynamic consultant Pierre Masson.

The Wines

What follows is not an exhaustive list, as Olivier’s releases vary from year to year. Coveted by restaurants in-the-know in Europe and a small cadre of dedicated fans, the wines are very hard to find outside of Europe. Today around 2,000 cases per year are made, with no plans to grow beyond 3,000 cases anytime soon.

“A key point to understand my work are low yields, followed by short macerations, in order to keep freshness in the wines,” Olivier says. “I strive for perfect grapes that stay nearly untouched later in the fermentation process.”

Pemà

Pema is a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from the estate, named for a little Tibetan girl Olivier once accompanied on a journey in the Himalayas during a documentary on the exile of Tibetan refugees.

Libero

Libero, means “free,” and thus reminded Olivier of a beautiful peasant Olivier once rented a vineyard from and is thus a fitting name for the Maremma native: Ciliegiolo.

Lino

Lino is Sangiovese “in Purezza,” aged 12 months in wooden barrels. Early in his journey, Olivier made a promise to his Sangiovese grapes: “I will never blend you again!”

D’Acco

D’Acco is the Alicante Nera wine. It’s “A red for the summer, to chill and drink under the sun,” says Olivier.

Amaë

Amaë is Cabernet Sauvignon aged 12 months in wooden barrels. Olivier uses very long toasting from his barrels supplied by Tonnellerie Orion and Francis Miquel. “I do this in order to have a wood that carries the wine instead of impacting the wine with flavors that have nothing to do with the wine,” he says.

Coquelicoter

This wine originated as a happy accident in 2018. A small tank of Alicante Nera—vinified as a white—stopped fermenting. Harvest was over, but Olivier decided to go and pick a few cases of verjus from a late-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard that was always left to the birds. It started to ferment, and from there he added it to the Alicante Nera to restart the fermentation. Over the winter he sold a few hundred bottles, and he was really happy. But the renown of the wine really bloomed; people kept asking for it again. So starting in 2019, Olivier decided to repeat his lucky accident.

Matt e O

Matteo is named for Olivier’s son, and is a 100% Sangiovese aged in clay amphoras for at least 12 months.

Monsieur Antoine

Monsieur Antoine is Alicante Nera with a short fermentation, returned to marble jars for aging.

The Future

Since 2010, Olivier has increased the area cultivated tenfold, and the number of labels ten times over as well. He says, “I have a playground that will amply feed my curiosity for the rest of my life without the need to expand further.” But he also has plans to build a new winery and housing units on the estate, and perhaps an intimate little restaurant. Olivier wants to welcome people here “to share with them the way we interpret our extraordinary terroir via our ordinary actions.” 20 years after he first encountered this place, it seems we are only still witnessing the genesis of Fuori Mundo.