FONDATA Issue One
I worked closely with creative director Alan Aboud (Aboud+Aboud) and publisher Patrick O’Connor (FINE+RARE), to develop FONDATA as a new platform to explore narratives adjacent to the worlds of fine wine and exceptional spirits. This inaugural FONDATA project takes the form of a beautifully designed, oversize journal that features essays and articles by some of the world’s most highly respected journalists, authors and academics – including Adam Gopnik, Deyan Sudjic, Dylan Jones, Geoff Dyer, Nicholas Foulkes, Julia Harding MW and also yours truly.
As FONDATA’s editor, I commissioned features and also contributed two of my own. My piece Epiphany Wines tells the story of how Shanghai chef-turned-winegrower Alex Xu’s future was reshaped on account of a series of epiphanic encounters with wine and the people that made it. And my feature entitled The Waterford Revolution introduces maverick single-malt maker Mark Reynier and how his obsession with terroir, traceability and transparency is driving new scientific research into flavours derived from barley grown on different soil types.
The issue features bespoke display typography by Rick Banks of F37, and also beautiful imagery by photographers Caolan Barron, Gavin Bond, and Julian Broad, and illustrators Sarah Jane Humphrey, Stewart Walton and Zebedee Helm. Ultimately, FONDATA is a celebration of the craft, care and camaraderie central to the production and, crucially, the enjoyment of the finer things in life.
Publisher: Patrick O’Connor
Creative director: Alan Aboud
Editor: Gavin Lucas
Designer: Haley Austin
Copy editor: Julie Bennett
instagram.com/fondatamedia
