{"id":1558156,"date":"2025-12-12T14:07:36","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T14:07:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.67pallmall.com\/?p=1558156"},"modified":"2025-12-20T14:22:49","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T14:22:49","slug":"meet-the-somm-gaston-adolfo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.67pallmall.com\/meet-the-somm-gaston-adolfo\/","title":{"rendered":"MEET THE SOMM | Gast\u00f3n Adolfo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Born in Argentina and raised in Tuscany, Gast\u00f3n Adolfo arrived in London with a burgeoning interest in wine but without a word of English. Today, the Assistant Deputy Head Sommelier of the London Club has ambitions to become a winemaker\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I was born in Buenos Aires in 1988. The Argentinian economy was in turmoil at the time, and there was a lot of social unrest, so my family moved to Florence when I was still an infant. Despite living close to Tuscan vineyards, my parents weren\u2019t at all interested in wine, and I didn\u2019t even taste wine until I was in my mid-20s and started going to restaurants in Florence. I had a girlfriend, and I remember on her birthday, I spent \u00a350 on a bottle, which was a lot for me. It was a Sangiovese \u2013 I don\u2019t recall exactly what \u2013 but I remember thinking, \u2018Wow, this is good\u2019. And little by little, I started falling in love with wine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A sommelier who I made friends with told me that, if I wanted to learn more, I should study with the Wine and Spirit Education Trust. The WSET wasn\u2019t yet running courses in Italy, but my girlfriend was studying fashion and wanted to move to London, so at the beginning of 2017 I moved with her \u2013 without speaking a word of English. Somehow I got a job in a wine bar, Bedales, in Leadenhall Market (my English was still very limited, so they told me not to speak to the customers). At the same time, I began my WSET studies \u2013 by putting everything into Google Translate. Straightaway, I was hooked. I didn\u2019t have a clear idea of what I wanted to do with my life back then, but here, finally, was something I could see myself making a career in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After about a year, I passed WSET Level 3 with the top score of the class, and my tutor put me in contact with the chef Tom Kerridge, who was recruiting. I trained intensely at his Hand and Flowers in Marlow. Even though it was a pub, it had two Michelin stars, so it was all about service and precision. It was very hard, to be honest, and I grew up a lot in a short space of time. After a year, I joined the opening team at his new restaurant in The Corinthia Hotel, which was also very pressurised. I stayed for a year and then joined Margot, a fine-dining restaurant in Covent Garden, which had a more relaxed, informal vibe, and was not so focused on Michelin stars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wielding the large format Madeira in the London Clubroom<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Everything was going great \u2013 until Covid arrived, and we were all put on furlough. Then, during lockdown, I found myself watching these masterclasses that Federico [Moccia] and Nelson [Pari] were giving on 67pallmall.TV. I\u2019d heard about 67 and its reputation, but I had no connection and it\u2019s not like I could just drop in and check it out. But the masterclasses were next level \u2013 I remember thinking those guys were incredible. I loved how they talked about wine \u2013 with style but knowledge. I wanted to do that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I contacted Nelson on Instagram telling him that I was desperate to work there. He put me in touch with [the Club\u2019s former Head of Wine] Ronan Sayburn MS, and I bombarded him with emails until he finally replied and invited me in for an interview. It was good timing \u2013 lockdown was ending, the Club was preparing to re-open and they were rebuilding the sommelier team. That was four years ago, and I\u2019ve been working at the London Club ever since, all the time building my knowledge and discovering more wines. I\u2019ve done two seasons at the Verbier Club too, which has been fantastic.  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, my family have become interested in wine. Well, sort of\u2026 Back in 2000, they bought some land in the DOC of Valdarno di Sopra, around 10 minutes from Chianti Classico. Valdarno di Sopra is a very old region with around 20 producers, all of them organic. My parents weren\u2019t thinking about wine, though \u2013 they wanted to build a house \u2013 but on the spare land they planted various fruit and vegetables. I didn\u2019t think much about it, but on my first trip back home from London, I said to my father: \u2018We should plant some vines here\u2019. He said, \u2018Fine, but it\u2019s down to you to sort it out.\u2019 So I did a bit of research, and with zero knowledge, told him we should plant a particular clone of Sangiovese \u2013 BBS11, the Biondi-Santi clone. I didn\u2019t even know what Biondi-Santi was, but I called up a random number I found online, and ordered enough to plant two rows. We didn\u2019t have a clue what we were doing, but we got them into the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My dad kept the vines healthy and I came back once a year to prune, based on what I learned from a book by Simonit & Sirch [the renowned authorities on vine pruning]. We didn\u2019t even pick the grapes, let alone make wine. Then I happened to visit Feudi di San Gregorio, in Campania, and met Pierpaolo Sirch, who is director of agronomy there. He told me about a new online course on vineyard management that he and Marco Simonit were running. I was doing my WSET Diploma at the time, and the first unit was on viticulture. Most people find that boring and technical, but for me, it was the most interesting part, so I signed up for the online course too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, I got back in touch with my old housemate in Florence who had become quite a successful winemaker, working with the likes of Tenuta Terre Nere in Sicily and Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars in Napa. In 2024, he helped me actually make a wine. We made it in our garage, fermented in stainless steel, with the malolactic in a glass globe, aged for a short time and then bottled. It was just for family and friends, but Giacomo [Apolloni, London\u2019s Clubroom Head Sommelier] came to visit and he tried it, so you\u2019ll have to ask him if it\u2019s any good\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pruning the vines of his family property in Valdarno di Sopra, Tuscany, planted by Gast\u00f3n and his father<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My friend was convinced that I should plant more vines, but I needed a second opinion. Nelson put me in touch with a viticultural consultant who works with a lot of different producers across Italy including Il Carnasciale and Petrolo, and he visited, took some samples, and a few weeks later sent me a report. He felt the site had really good potential to do something more serious. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, I put all my savings into planting two more plots \u2013 around two hectares in total, with a different clone of Sangiovese. I go back quite often now \u2013 I aim for every month \u2013 and am getting more and more involved. The ultimate plan is to wait for the vineyard to mature and then, in five years\u2019 time, to move back to Italy full-time and become a winemaker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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