Since the family’s arrival in Briona in 1700, the Castaldi family has never abandoned winegrowing on these hills. Today, Francesca and Marco carry forward the tradition of both family and territory.
ORIGINS
A passionate vine grower, grandfather Pierino was always experimenting and innovating. A mechanics enthusiast with limited financial means, he was never deterred by hardship: at the end of the Second World War, salvaging mechanical parts from various vehicles, he built his own first tractor, which he named “Figlio di Nessuno” (“Nobody’s Son”). He always believed in the territory and in quality, in our cellar we still keep bottles of Fara 1969, the very first vintage in the history of this denomination.
HISTORY
In 1997, his daughter Francesca began managing the family vineyards and launched an estate renewal initiative. In the vineyard, she progressively phased out the “tendone” or pergola training system, still widely used in the area, in favor of the Guyot method, which ensures greater vine longevity together with a higher qualitative level of the grapes. She also oversaw the replanting of several plots, selecting planting layouts suited to modern viticulture in order to optimize product quality alongside the efficiency of vineyard management operations. Initially, only a small portion of the harvested grapes was vinified at the cellar of her brother, Giuseppe.
THE ESTATE
THE WINERY
VINEYARDS
The vineyards of Briona occupy a large part of a magnificent plateau, a fluvio-glacial terrace at the foot of the Alps. These hills, dating back to the Pleistocene era (approximately 400,000 years ago), extend long and regular all the way to Monte Rosa. The soil is composed of clay and silt in the surface layers, with pebbles at greater depth.
The family’s 8 hectares of vineyards, replanted between 1997 and 2005, have now reached the maturity and balance needed to ensure a richer, more refined grape composition. The main variety is Nebbiolo, which on these soils acquires distinctive characteristics of elegance and refinement. Alongside Nebbiolo, the Castaldi vineyards also grow Vespolina, Uva Rara and a native white variety — indigenous cultivars that help define the typicity and tradition of the Briona hills. Vineyard management is largely manual, which requires a greater investment of time in fieldwork, offset however by a gain in the quality of the resulting product. During harvest, the bunches are selected directly on the vine and carefully collected in small 20 kg crates.
PHILOSOPHY
Always attentive to developing the best vineyard cultivation techniques, the Castaldi family has, since its early days in the late 1980s, adhered to EU Regulation 2078 (now the Rural Development Plan) in order to combat vine diseases with the lowest possible environmental impact. They employ biological methods for controlling vine diseases together with soil-working techniques that naturally hinder the growth of weeds.
The use of chemical herbicides has been eliminated, in order to preserve and protect the biodiversity of spontaneous grasses and beneficial insects for the vines. Vineyard management is manual and meticulous, so as to achieve the utmost qualitative excellence of production. During fermentation, the aim is to enhance the aromatic heritage of these grapes, enabling the creation of wines that reflect the territory from which they come. Vinification techniques are optimized with a modern approach, while tradition remains the primary point of reference: time, above all, is the factor that dictates the rhythm from harvest to bottle.