In 1978, the same year as the groundbreaking, infamous blind tasting organized by Decanter magazine, in which the 1972 vintage of the then largely unknown Sassicaia wine from the Tenuta San Guido estate of Marquis Mario Incisa della Rocchetta beat a number of top Bordeaux wines, Paolo and Simone's father, Michele Di Gaetano (†), decided to give up his profitable Milanese hair salon, where he styled the hair of many celebrities, and relocate from the big city to a more rural area further south. In 1979, Michele's wife, Marina, and their two sons, Paolo and Simone, also moved from the metropolis of northern Italy to the olive groves of Bolghere. Fonte di Foiano was founded.
Michele Di Gaetano chose the region around Bolgheri, which would later become known for its fine and expensive wines. It was only two years after Michele Di Gaetano had traded his hairdresser's shears for the unfamiliar pruning shears and brought some semblance of order to the wild olive grove in Bolgheri – now known as Fonte di Foiano – that the now highly renowned Tenuta dell'Ornellaia winery was founded nearby by Ludovico Antinori.
Fonte di Foiano, and Michele Di Gaetano in particular, had witnessed the slow but steady rise of the Super Tuscans firsthand over the years. While foreign customers were willing to pay top prices for the best wines of the Bolgheri region, olive oil was considered by affluent customers from overseas and north of the Alps, at best, as an alternative dressing for salads. Michele Di Gaetano was determined to change this misconception the outside world had of olive oil. He spared no effort—his wife Marina had long since declared him crazy—to produce the best olive oil in the region.
But it wasn't until the two sons, Paolo and Simone, actively joined the business that a high-performance, state-of-the-art olive oil mill was acquired at considerable expense. The quality of Fonte di Foiano's oils improved dramatically. Since then, the Di Gaetano brothers have been considered pioneers in the industry. They have long since caught up with their great role model, Maestro Giorgio Franci from Montenero d'Orcia, who for all those years seemed unattainable. The young men from Bolgheri have already garnered numerous awards at national and international competitions for their exquisite and distinctive oils.
In 2017, his father Michele lost a short but intense battle against an aggressive cancer. The local newspapers ran the headline "Addio al re dell'olio - arrivo' con un pettine e un rasoio.", which translates to "Goodbye King of Olive Oil - he came with a comb and a razor."
Marina loves to recount the story of Fonte di Foiano, which to this day resembles a continuous adventure. And so, the renowned Foiano estate is deeply connected not only to Michele, but also to Marina. It's no coincidence that the Ligurian Sea lies just outside Foiano, reflecting the light of the hot Tuscan sun off the water's surface and back onto the Castagneto Carducci hill, thus creating optimal conditions for the olives of the Fonte di Foiano estate.
