Imagine your perfect wedding day.
In the magnificent expanse of a Tuscan villa, family and friends gather excitedly and expectantly in the piazza.
The sun and billowing white clouds shadow dance over the rolling hillsides as breezes ruffle grapevines in surrounding vineyards. You and your wedding party sip wine and make your final apparel adjustments in a lovely room appointed just for that purpose.
Finally, it’s time.
You make your way down an elegant stone-accented hall made all the more dramatic with a barrel-vaulted ceiling. Then you enter a garden where all your guests are assembled. And most important of all, your partner is waiting in a spectacular gazebo to exchange the vows that will connect you for life.
It’s an experience that evokes the best of Italy’s storied central region. And it’s an experience that would cost a pretty penny if you and your guests traveled to Europe.
But the good news is that this Tuscan experience has come to the exquisite countryside of northern Berks County in the form of Folino Estate Vineyard and Winery.
And just like many villas in Tuscany, the establishment is a multi-generational family enterprise steeped in Italian traditions.
Coupled inspiration
The vineyard was the brainchild of Marco and Andrea Folino, who, along with Marco’s brother Stefano, have made it a reality in a relatively short time.
But the road to establishing the business was not without its detours.
The 54-acre farm in the 300 block of Old Route 22 came on the market a little more than a decade ago. Marco and Stefano’s father, Rodolfo, purchased the acreage looking to build a residential community. But the idea never became a reality for a number of reasons, including engineering challenges, problems with the township government, and the 2008 recession. The result was good news for a neighboring farmer who rented the fertile acres to grow crops. But that rental did not go terribly far to pay the bills.
Then, rather out of the blue, inspiration came — actually out of a magazine – to Andrea.
“One night I was reading an article about a couple opening a winery,” she recalls. “I said to my husband: ‘Wouldn’t that be neat?’”
Marco enthusiastically concurred.
“When my husband gets something in his head, he runs with it,” says Andrea.
Marco had a vineyard consultant come out to test the soil and found it perfect for vines. Actually, the expert confirmed what the couple expected, noting the growing success of the nearby Pinnacle Ridge and Blair wineries.
More than a vineyard
It wasn’t just the soil that proved to be fertile – Marco and Andrea’s minds were also sprouting ideas to make the place more.
Pretty much still newlyweds themselves, the couple felt the stunning setting was a natural backdrop for special events, especially weddings. “I had tried to find something like this for my own wedding,” says Andrea of her 2010 nuptials.
And while an event venue was indeed special, the couple also wanted a place where patrons could gather more casually. Hence, the restaurant was born.
“We decided to add the restaurant,” says Andrea. “After all, what’s better than food and wine together?”
The restaurant business surely is in Marco and Stefano’s blood. After their parents Rodolfo and Lidia emigrated from Italy and settled locally, they opened Valentino’s in Kutztown (it has since changed ownership). The family then went on to open Massimo’s Ristorante & Pizzeria in Blandon andMangia! Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria in Mohnton.
“I like to say we are very fortunate to be the next generation in Kutztown,” says Andrea. (Note: The location of the winery is just north of the Borough of Kutztown.)
Designing spouses
Once the couple determined the purpose of the structure, they developed some design concepts and engaged Watkins Architect LTD of Fleetwood to make their dream a reality.
The Folinos had honeymooned in Tuscany, and the area made a real impact.“I fell in love with the architecture there, and we knew we had to build something reminiscent of it here,” Andrea says.
From the architectural renderings forward, the building of the villa became a family affair. Folino Construction Co. built the structure while Andrea, through her firm Tendenza Fashion and Interiors of Blandon, handled the interior décor and furnishings.
As visitors wind their way up the long driveway, the imposing structure perched atop the hillside does spirit one’s thoughts away to Tuscany.
A noteworthy landmark
The 17,000-square-foot building almost seems to spring up from the very vineyards themselves. Indeed, says Andrea, the next planned set of vines to be planted in May will literally come to the edge of the long patio that fronts both the event rooms and restaurant.
The vines are ordered from California but replicate those creating the wines of Italy the Folinos love.
In all, 30 of the 54 acres of the estate will be vineyards. The varietals either planted or in the planning are vermentino, pinot grigio, pinot noir, teroldego, merlot, cabernet franc, sangiovese, chambourcin, and vidal blanc, according to Andrea.
“We are going for the Italian old-world styles of wine,” she says.
The whole estate is old-world as well.
“We just sort of wanted this to be a place where people don’t just come to taste wine, that they get the whole experience,” explains Andrea.
Clearly, early indications are showing that people are already finding the venue popular.
Betting on a great experience
By mid-November before the official opening, 30 wedding parties were scheduled into this year and 2017. Andrea estimated 75 percent of those couples are to be married on site.
“We had people booking even before we started dry walling,” she says. “We put it [the wedding venue] out there in January 2015. The first wedding is scheduled in April.”
The early success of the venue as a wedding destination speaks to Andrea’s experience in sales and marketing. She is a graduate of nearby Kutztown University where she majored in the field. From there, she applied her skills to the family’s Folino Homes company. She liked the home sale business so much, she became a real estate agent. Now she juggles her own company, her real estate duties, and the operation of the winery with the fun but energy-sapping job of being the mom of a lively two-year-old.
But all those roles have done nothing to keep her eye off the prize of creating a successful winery, restaurant and venue, where she not only serves as vice president of sales and marketing but also as managing partner.
As Andrea walks a visitor through the nearly completed villa in early November, she points out the highlights of the rustic building even as she deals with craftspeople, folks asking about job applications, and office and kitchen personnel pulling their bases of operation together.A master woodworker is adjusting the fit of the 10-foot-high wooden doors at the entrance. Andrea frets about the fountain as adjustments are made to lessen the flow of water spilling down its levels.
New building, familiar feelings
First on the tour is the tasting room, where patrons who enter through grapevine-motif iron gates can sample a variety of Folino wines. The chandeliers are clusters of upside-down wine glasses. Andrea says the room will be open Wednesdays through Saturdays 11 to 8pm and Sundays 11am to 5pm.
Inside the tasting room is a small marketplace that will boast both food and household items, many imported from Europe, especially Italy. The merchandise not only affords the opportunity for a great souvenir of the visit (a wine glass imprinted with the winery logo, perhaps?), but also the ability for those absent-minded guests to purchase a fabulous last-minute wedding gift.
Patrons of the wine room can do more than just sample and taste. They can purchase wine by the glass to enjoy later in the restaurant or at simple bistro tables in the light and airy piazza, complete with fountain, that serves as the entrance for the community of rooms just as open-air piazzas serve as traditional gathering places in Italian towns.
Next up and adjacent to the tasting room is the restaurant, a cavernous room featuring open seating for about 120 and a double-sided fireplace positioned in the center. The wooden chairs and tables are reminiscent of a European café. Off to one side is a bar boasting a custom foot rail. The bar faces the working area for a wood-fired pizza oven, also imported from Italy.
The restaurant hours pretty much mirror those of the tasting room, although on weekends the restaurant stays open an hour longer. It also opens Sundays at 10am for brunch that continues through the day.
Good food, good pricing
More interesting than the hours is the food. The menu includes foods all Italian-inspired, some old family recipes and all taste tested by the owners. Appetizers, including delights like calamari and caprese skewers, range in price from $6 to $13; soups and salads, $4 to $10; paninis, including vegetarian creations, $8 to $13; and entrees and pasta main courses range from $11 to $28. The 12-inch personal pizzas are priced from $8 to $13 and include everything from the traditional margherita to the bianco.
“We wanted to offer our patrons a variety of choices in a comfortable atmosphere,” says Andrea. “We want to get rid of that pre-conceived notion of ‘what’s the right wine for the right food.’” However, the menu does offer wine suggestions to go with the various food offerings.
“We want people to experiment and to do that in a fun, welcoming place.”
A double-sided kitchen serves both the restaurant and the event rooms with the same homemade, high-quality food.
Those kitchens are large and sophisticated enough to handle the cooking classes Andrea hopes to offer soon. The tasting room will be the site for complementary wine education courses.
Andrea says both buffets and sit-down meals are available for event patrons. Most weddings are sit-down dinner affairs.
The banquet rooms are set off from the restaurant by a pre-reception area fronting the patio, where guests can mingle before and/or after the ceremony prior to the formal meal. The Pinot Grigio room can handle 80 guests while the larger Chianti Room holds 130. Opened together, they can accommodate up to 220.
Expecting more? Then a spring, summer, or fall wedding celebration under a tent that can accommodate seating of 300 guests might just be the solution.
And, if you’re planning that wedding ceremony in the afternoon lasting into the evening, both the tent and banquet rooms face west for a spectacular sunset over the rolling northern Berks hills. And the good news – those sunsets are free.
There is also the opportunity to play a traditional Italian game: bocce ball courts are part of the landscape as well.
In addition to weddings, Andrea says dates have already been reserved for bridal and baby showers, holiday parties, and birthday parties. She is also developing packages for corporate functions.
Of course, Folino wines are likely to play key roles in the toasts offered to the newly married couples.
The right stuff
Andrea explained it takes about three years for vines to produce enough grapes for the wine-making process. Until then, the grapes are carefully purchased from other vineyards.
And while the wine is currently made in a temporary building on the estate, a permanent structure is in the making. In a little more than a year visitors will be able to witness the wine-making process through large windows in the main villa.
The Folino Estate Vineyard and Winery logo was designed by Andrea. It features grapes, leaves, and curving lines indicative of the vines and notes the founding year of 2014. The logo also features the Latin saying: “Nel vino c'è la verità.”
English translation: “In wine is the truth.”
Andrea, Marco and Stefano are banking on that phrase, trusting that the soil and the weather, the setting and the building, the wine and the food, the people and the celebrations are the ingredients for a prospering vineyard for generations to come.
“We are so lucky to have this – that all the right components have come together,” says Andrea, “and we never forget that out of what was a problem came our opportunity.”
For more info about Folino Estate Vineyard and Winery, visit folinoestate.com or call 484.452.3633.
By Donna Reed | Photos by John A. Secoges, Secoges Photographics
