Organic vine-growing

Ours has not been a technical and cultural revolution in viticulture.

Organic vine-growing means working
as our grandfathers or like our own fathers.did

Copper and sulphur, in their simplest forms, are still our principal means of defence against mildew and downy mildew (the biggest fungal infections which affect vines), as they were for our fathers and grandfathers.

The grasses and weeds that grow among the vines are cut back with a sickle in the old way. We don't use weedkillers, which turn the vivid green spring countryside into a series of yellow stripes.

The vines are fertilised with manure, and these days we mix in various minerals at the composting stage. We also use clover and other weeds as 'green manure'. When we first plant the vines we dig and hoe the lanes between them by hand, and it's only after the first few years that we use a tractor.

In our cellar the development of the wine still is, as it was traditionally, mainly down to the internal dynamic of the materials themselves. Today we use the old 'cement' vats to ferment the red wines, later transferring them into wooden barrels, while for white wines we use the new steel vats. This makes the red wines more rounded and harmonious and the whites more fragrant.

Wine lovers want a clear wine and we use the old natural system of exposing the barrels to the cold.

Today wines are subjected to pasteurisation in order to stabilise it – unthinkable in the old days as it is for us today. The wine must remain alive and in continual development, even though continually checked.

Wine is a harmonious coming together of the soil, human labour and natural chemical processes: good wine is the product of many years experience.

Our own long experience has made it possible for us to offer other wines alongside our typical Barbera Doc, Cortese Doc and Dolcetto. Our newer wines have particular qualities due to the types of grapes used and the way in which the wine has been matured in our oak barrels.

It all come back to our philosophy: to find and renew the positive aspects of traditional ways of working, rooted in our own locality and culture, which remind us of our duty to respect the balance of nature.