Gianfranco Manca is the mind behind some spectacularly brilliant Sardinian wines and has a pretty good story, even if we do say so ourselves.
Raised a baker he started out by taking over his uncle's bakery. He also coincidentally inherited and rehabilitated the old and rather neglected family vineyard. That's when he fell in love with the vines and started his adventure in winemaking. Curiously, he cites his major influences as Jesus and Bob Dylan, loaves and wine, or something like that.
Panevino = Soul + Spirit
Each year Gianfranco makes his wine according to the seasons and what the vines tell him to do with the grapes. No two years or expressions are ever the same. However, recent years have not been kind for winemaking in Sardinia. In the last five years Panevino suffered three years of loss. In 2015 the area was struck by hail the size of oranges, days before the harvest began. 2017 was a year of terrible drought, and after 44 days of rain the 2018 fruit was lost to mildew. The winery was struggling to survive.
Gianfranco called on his friends, also Australian natural wine luminaries – importer Giorgio de Maria (Giorgio de Maria Fun Wines!), Anton von Klopper (Lucy M Wines) and Tom Shobbrook (Shobbrook wines) to lend a hand. So in 2019 they invited Gianfranco and his son Isacco to make wine in South Australia.
This release is different and exciting. We have two sets of wines made by Gianfranco, a collection made in Sardinia, and a unique set made in South Australia with the help of his pals. The South Australian wines are aptly name Pantom (a cute mash up of all the names) and were shown at our masterclass in August 2020 for the first time in Australia.