Experimentations and innovations are an important part of the winemaking process to reach balance in the wine, longevity and to get the best characteristics out of the grapes. Especially the artisan winemakers need a lot of knowledge and understanding about the surrounding nature and it’s potentials. They need to know the roots of a region, to understand which grapes to cultivate in one specific terroir and how to conduct the work, both in the vineyards and the cellar.

Artisan winemakers need to be very efficient and they need to look ahead because mistakes are difficult or impossible to correct in natural winemaking. They need a lot of intuition to know how and when to guide the process of wine making, because wine changes constantly and absorbs new characteristics from the environment. The temperature swings, the humidity, the impact of the vessel to the wine, whether it is wood, new or old, steel or concrete, every little thing affects the flavour and complexity.

In conventional winemaking you can do all kinds of adjustments with different additives, to correct all kinds of faults from the colour and structure to the flavour. It uses technology to eliminate risks, both in the vineyards and in the cellar to gain absolute control over every step of the process – very little is left to nature. Natural winemakers work the opposite way.

Weed killers or pesticides are not used in naturally grown vineyards. That allows wild yeast strains to survive in the grapes which makes them “more alive”, no additives are used in the winemaking process either and the results you can find in the true flavour of the wine.

Artisans of wine are real artists of wine, every artist wants to develop his or her work by using creativity to make a better work of art, so they are more willing to take chances, to put all their effort into the creative process by following their intuition and by listening to the nature no matter if the risks are high.

It takes time and patience to see the results of experimentations, in some cases it can take years before you can see the changes when it comes to starting the practice of new methods of viticulture. Anyway, it takes at least a year when experimenting in the cellar to see if it has been a positive change.

“today the moon is in the root”

Natural wines are always changing. They develop trough time and can differ a lot from day to day. Even the position of the stars affects the wines. There is a special calendar that can tell you when it is a good day to open a bottle of wine that is made following biodynamic principles. There is even an App available to be downloaded to your phone.

If you dine in a restaurant where they also serve biodynamic wines and they are serious about it, the sommelier might advice you which bottles are best to open on a particular day, you might hear that “today the moon is in the root” and that means that it’s not a good day to open a biodynamicly produced wine.

So we are talking about very precise matters and every little thing must be taken into consideration. A winemaker who follows the biodynamic principles in viticulture knows when is the right day to do some work in the vineyard, or in the cellar. It’s real commitment to winemaking, they are passionate and the love what they are doing, you can see it and feel it when talking to them.

Last week we visited three of the winemakers we represent in northern Italy to hear more about their new experimentations and innovations.

First we visited Daniele Delaini from our newest winery Villa Calicantus. Villa Calicantus is the smallest winery of the Bardolino wine area: 1,2 hectares of vineyards surrounded by olives trees and small woods, on the top of one of the highest hill of the Bardolino Classico area, 2 km away from Lake Garda. The production is between 4000 and 7000 bottles per year. The first year of production was 2011. Daniele has been practicing organic viticulture since the beginning and biodynamics since 2014.

He has been experimenting a different way to produce Bardolino wines. He believes in the ageing potential of a Bardolino wine and has now produced the first Chiaretto which is fermented and aged in wooden barrels. The result is very promising. We tasted the new vintage of 2015 and its fruitiness and elegancy makes it just the kind of wine you want to drink more than a bottle.

“One day in Paris I participated in a vertical wine tasting of a winery that passed during the years from a chemical agriculture, to an organic and then biodynamic. During the tasting I immediately felt the difference when we started to taste the wines produced in biodynamics. It was a revelation! In those wines I felt the vitality, the strength and the mineral taste of the soil in which the vines’s roots are. I realised that the organic approach was not enough, that I had to go beyond it. It was not enough to say: “No chemistry”. I had to go deep into the comprehension of my land, starting from the soil and from the ongoing balances in my vineyards.”

The second day we visited Stefano Menti at Gambellara Veneto. Stefano is cultivating 7,5 ha of garganega and durella vines in the Gambellara and the Lessini classic hilly area. From these grapes, white still dry wines are produced, white fizzy and sparkling wines and also some sweet wines from resin fruits.

The cultivation of the vineyards is organic using biodynamic methods and in the cellar only natural yeasts are used to better keep the characteristics of the Gambellara terroir. Stefano hosted us along his vineyard and cellar, and he was wearing a t-shirt saying in Italian “Vino volutamente declassato” “deliberately downgraded wine”. You can see the same phrase written on the labels of his wines and his statement is clear. He wants to produce terroir driven wines. They are what they are, just as nature want them to be and he doesn’t care about appellations.

Omomorto, his spumante Metodo Classico, is fermented only with the wild yeasts of the Garganega grape must and deliberately not disgorged. You can drink the wine “cloudy” by shaking the bottle so that the yeast will blend to the wine or you can keep the bottle upside down and open it by sinking the bottle neck in a bowl of water so that the yeast will come out of the bottle and you can drink a clear wine. Stefano has also invented a special cork opener to open the bottle under water, the patent for that is pending. In this wine you can really feel the passion of Stefano towards the work and experimentations that he does.

The third winery we visited was Ca del Vent, a small, independent, artisanal winery in Cellatica at the eastern border of Franciacorta, Lombardy. The estate covers only 6 hectares. The vineyards are on top of the Campiani hills (350/400 m.a.s.l.), with quite steep slopes in a unique windy and dry microclimate.

We met the winemaker Flavio Faliva who patiently explained us about his experimentations in the vineyard. Flavio has taken Rudolf Steiners theories about biodynamic viticulture to another level by adopting the principles of quantum physics in agriculture. That is done to take maximum advantage of the energy of the whole ecosystem living in the nature to minimise every intervention in the vineyard and to let the ecosystem itself do the work.

This energy approach was applied to some wines from 2011 vintage and to all wines from 2012 vintage. These wines are more structured, wider and more complex aromatically. Above all you can taste the true aroma and flavour of the grapes in the wine.

“But wine is not just a matter of science, although it is true that experimentation widens our knowledge and opens to new approaches, it is first a matter of human sensitivity: this is the way to better interpret the expressions of terroir. As the vine, the grape and the must are live, the wine must also be live. Developing in the glass, in the bottle and ageing in the years.”

We have recently been asked if we at Vino Nostrum have “vegan friendly” wines, well my first reaction was that they all are! Because the wines we represent do not contain any additives of animal origin such as casein (milk protein) albumin (egg whites) gelatin (animal protein) or isinglass (fish bladder protein) which are the most commonly used additives in the fining process of the wines. The wineries we collaborate with don’t use any chemical products which may contain substances of animal origin, they work in the vineyards with the highest respect towards the nature knowing that the soil needs to be healthy in order to grow healthy grapes. Therefore they work with very little intervention in the vineyards, without using pesticides or herbicides, when needed they use herbal and plant based products to prevent the invasion of predator insects or fertilisers made with organic manure. But then I was told that a wine is considered not to be vegan friendly if there are any traces of products of animal origin in any of the production stages, meaning that even cows manure is not allowed to be used in the vineyard.

A few questions aroused after that, first of all what is Veganism? The Vegan society’s definition of veganism is this:

“A philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals.”

This is a philosophy that we respect in it’s exploitation and cruelty aspect.

The second question concerns the manure; in which part of the gathering of the poop of the cows in a pile to make it become compost is it considered to be an act of exploitation or cruelty toward the animal? This is something that should probably be better specified and understood by the Vegans and the Vegan society. Cows eat and poop all the time and naturally. I can understand if we are talking about the manure which comes from the meat industry that will perform cruelty to the animals by feeding them animal proteins or antibiotics, but what about organically farmed animal manure? Could that not be used? Wineries that produces wines using organic, biodynamic or natural wine production principles might use manure in the vineyard but only BIO cow manure, so basically it will not contain any traces of products of animal origin, it is organic grass manure.

If it is so that no manure or other animal deviant can be in contact with the plants, then we are drifting away from the original ideal of Veganism and from the normal circle of life and death.

Because even if we would take away the cows manure, just think about all the other poop which is left in the vineyards by wild animals, birds and all the insects who live in the grapes. Are we really aware of how much animal life there is ( and should naturally be) in the farms?

A vineyard in a natural state where you don’t use any pesticides is full of little insect life and these little insects will follow to the cellar and will be pressed along with the grapes, so if we only think about this how can we say that any wine is vegan? And how could it be avoided not to have insects pressed with grapes into the wine? Only by killing the insects by spraying poison on the plants in the vineyard. Sure that can be done and has been done for too long by conventional wineries, but basically that is the worst case scenario, you would yes have a certification on the label which claims that it is a vegan friendly wine, only because it will not contain any additives of animal origin, but what about the poisoning of the insects or the environment?

There is no legislation behind vegan certifications either, there are only private associations from which one can apply vegan certification and at least the two major ones in Italy (VeganOk and ICEA)  and a British Vegan Society actually states that manure is acceptable in the vineyard. So we can come to conclusion that there is a big confusion of interpretations and ideals in this matter. It is nearly impossible to eradicate all traces of animal products from your daily life since traces of animal products are widely used in all sorts of factory production, sure you can avoid processed food and cosmetic products like soaps which are mainly made with animal fat, but take for instance the steel industry, animal fat is used to lubricate steel, so if we start to be too radical about Veganism, we would need to ban also let’s say bicycles for its steel frame might have been lubricated with animal fat. We could go on for hours listing unthinkable different products which might contain animal traces but that is not the main point here, but to be rational and not to create confusion and especially when it comes to matters of the natural circle of life. And to keep in mind the original philosophy behind Veganism;

A philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to animals

Having said this we consider all the wines we represent vegan friendly, they are free from additives of animal origin and free from processing, they are hand made with the highest respect towards nature and the environment; they are healthy and natural wines!

* quote inspired by Fabrizio de Andrè

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The climate is oceanic and continental and the oceanic influence brings steady rainfall without significant variations in seasonal temperatures. The continental influence ensures ideal levels of sunlight in summer, but also frosts in winter. The average annual temperature is around 10 degrees. The soils are geologically homogenous with different combinations of chalk, marl, limestone, clay and silica sand which express different terroirs. The upper layer is generally formed of clay and sand and the deeper layers, the subsoils, are rich in chalk which is very important in the soil for thermal and humidity control. This type of subsoil provides good drainage and also imparts the mineral flavour in the wines.

Champagne as a region has a long history in winemaking, but only at the end of the 18th century with the technical innovations that allowed for the measuring of residual sugars in wine and the studies conducted by Maumené and Paster about the use of yeast, the wine started to develop into the wine we know and love today. In less than a hundred years Champagne became so popular that the production increased from a few hundred of thousands of bottles to almost 30 million bottles by the end of the 19th century. In 2000 the production exceeded 300 million bottles.

Unfortunately, this kind of explosive growth of demand and the cost of the land in Champagne led to activities which have damaged big parts of this unique area. The need for higher yields, to be able to produce more wine, meant also an increasing need for compost to fertilise the plants. From the beginning of the 20th century winegrowers from Champagne started to get their fertilisers from the city of Paris, in exchange for paying the transport cost they would get all the compost they wanted from the city in the form of trash. In the beginning the waste was mostly organic matter, but as time passed things started to change. The most drastic changed happened after the  petrochemical revolution and the introduction of plastic materials to everyday life.

The governing body of Champagne finally outlawed the practice of using trash as compost at the end of the 90’s. However, decades of damage had already been done to the vineyards, now covered in layers of trash, including BHPA plastics. Not to mention all the damage caused by the herbicides and pesticides that have been used over the years.

Left the biodynamically farmed vineyard of Leclerc Briant. Right a conventional winery. The village of Epernay can be seen in the background.

These days a big part of the soil in Champagne is far from healthy, lacking the living soils surrounded by biodiversity. Maybe one of the main reasons why all of this happened is the fact that there are approximately 19.000 winegrowers in Champagne but only around 4.500 producers. To make high quality wines, producers normally lower the yields per plants. Most of the artisan wineries have in average a yield of 4000 kilograms per hectare for example, while in Champagne the yield is 10,000 kilograms per hectare. Most winegrowers in Champagne sell their grapes to cooperatives and just want to get the highest price possible for the grapes they sell. Because of the winemaking technique used, the champenoise method, you can even make good Champagne out of bad grapes, but when you taste a Champagne made with good, healthy grapes you can clearly tell the difference. 

There are two letter initials marked on the label of a Champagne bottle that help consumers to figure out how the wine was made. The one we find most important  are the RM initials, which indicate that a single winery has been responsible for the whole production process of the wine, from growing their own grapes to the winemaking in their own cellar. A full list of initials can be found HERE.

Leclerc Briant, a responsible Champagne producer

Despite the fact that most of the soil in Champagne is dead, the new generation of winemakers is starting to make a change, like they have been doing in Burgundy for the past years. It will take time, decades even, before the soil will recover, but as consumers we can contribute to this by supporting wineries which have adopted organic or biodynamic wine production. For us it’s a very important matter and therefore we are also very selective on which wineries we represent. We’ve  recently started to collaborate with the Champagne house of Leclerc Briant, for they have been conducting biodynamic agriculture since the 1940’s and they make excellent wines. Champagne is a unique region, we can only hope that the new generation will be more conscious about the environment and will revitalise and preserve the land for generations to come.

This week Verona was again the centre of the most important international annual wine fair of Italy. Vinitaly is a 4 day event being held from the 10th of April to the 13th of April at the Veronafiere Fairground. A couple of days ago we said goodbye to the 50th edition of Vinitaly, which was visited by approximately 150.000 people from all over the world.

This year the Veronese fair centre was bigger than ever with over 100.000 square meter of exhibition ground and more than 4100 exhibitors. The fair area was huge and divided into 12 different pavilions, each representing different wine regions. Big stands, beautifully designed by architects, are being built with big money to promote wineries and their products; it’s a great trade show and an amazing experience for those who like displays of grandeur.

Paolo Dettori, Dettori

Fortunately, Vinitaly also has something to offer to the lovers of artisan wines. There are two distinct areas which are very interesting, namely the area of Vigne Vignaioli Terroir, or ViViT, which is synonymous with artisan wines and the area of FIVI, the Italian Federation of Independent Winegrowers.

Both organisations sat side by side in pavilion 8 of the exhibition centre, creating a path between producers that share the same values ​​of transparency, authenticity and individuality. the producers here made use of simple and basic setups which placed maximum emphasis on the winegrowers and their products, without wasting space and resources on equipment and furnishing. In these exhibition areas the wines are the leading part.

You might also find the occasional pearl in the regional pavilions, wineries which are not part of one of the wine associations, but hidden between the big stands. They can often remain undiscovered.

There are also plenty of events taking place alongside Vinitaly. One of them and surely the most interesting for natural wine lovers, is the wine fair organised by VinNatur in Villa Favorita, Vicenza. As an experience it’s in many ways the total opposite of Vinitaly. The event was held in the countryside of Vicenza surrounded by vineyards in a beautiful authentic villa from the 18th century, a stunning location, far away from the commercial world.

It’s a unique event and one of the most important events for natural wines in Europe. It brings together European winegrowers who share techniques and experiences on how to produce wine in a natural way, both in the vineyard and in the cellar, and to discuss the “terroir culture”. 

Flavio Faliva, Cà del Vént

Each visitor  is able to meet and get to know the producers themselves, to taste the new vintages of their wines and sample from the barrels and new “entries” like in the case of the winery Cà del Vént. The winery presented two new wines at Villa Favorita which are the first wines made by following the principles of quantum physics throughout the whole winemaking process. The result, after years of experimentation, is excellent. This kind of experimentation and innovation is part of natural winemaking and in Villa Favorita you can learn about many interesting ways of conducting natural viticulture. In a friendly, warm and easy going atmosphere where the wine plays the leading role.  

Vanni Nizzoli, Cinque Campi

Half of Italy’s olive oil is produced in Puglia. Wine is produced in diverse landscapes, spread out among the five main viticultural areas: Foggia in the north, Bari and Taranto in the middle and Brindisi and Lecce in the south. The soils in these areas are mainly calcareous, clay and sandy soil together with the typical “terre rosse” red soil of the southern area between Taranto and Lecce.

In the northern part of the region the vineyards are mainly planted on the slopes of the mountainous promontory of Gargano where grape varieties like Verdeca, Bombino Bianco and Malvasia Bianca for the whites and Uva di Troia, Montepulciano and Sangiovese grapes for the reds are being cultivated. The wines produced here have a light texture and are easy to drink.

In the central area, in the rocky hills of Murge, more elegant whites are produced in addition to rosé wines and reds made with Uva di Troia and Primitivo grapes.

In the south red wines from Primitivo and Negroamaro grapes are stronger and more structured, but they can be surprisingly elegant with easy drinkability. These two grape varieties are the most cultivated among the local grapes of the region and they are the best representatives of Puglia’s viticulture.  

Negroamaro has greek origins and the name is inspired by its black skin and bitter aftertaste (derived from the latin word niger for black and the greek word mavros for bitter).

Primitivo was most probably brought to Puglia by slavic immigrants during the fifteenth century. The name comes from the early maturation and harvest of this black grape, which occurs already at the end of August or latest by the first week of September. The most interesting characteristic of this grape is that after a month from harvest the plant matures secondary grapes, with a yield of approximately 20 to 30% of the harvest, which have a lighter structure and are used to produce rustic and fresh red or rosé wines.

More than any other region Puglia has seen a shift away from producing great volumes of blending wines towards smaller quantities of high quality wines with character. Especially the red wines of Puglia ,which are rich in colour and high in alcohol, were used as blending wines to give more structure to the lighter wines produced in northern Italy and France.

In the early 1970’s the philosophy behind wine production started to change, the potential of the local grape varieties was recognised and the production of excellent red wines began with Negroamaro followed by Primitivo, Uva di Troia and other indigenous grapes. Today the region counts 4 DOCGs and 29 DOCs; more than any region in southern Italy.

Puglia is a region that has great potential for natural wine production. The amount of natural wine producers is increasing and there are already a few very good wineries which are applying the principles of biodynamic viticulture.

One of them is a small artisan winery named Morella, based in Manduria. They cultivate Primitivo grape bush vines in the local red soil. The vines are over 80 years old and the winery’s philosophy is to preserve the uniqueness of the old bush vines, recognising the value of these concentrated grapes. Morella wines give you a taste of elegance and at the same time highlight the typicality of the Primitivo grape.

Morella’s artisan wines are now available at www.vinonostrum.com.

Pfalz. Home of the official German Wine Road, which is key in connecting many of the wine-villages from north to south. The best known city in this area is Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, where the German Wine Queen is elected each year. Pfalz is one of the warmest regions in Germany and as such houses grapes ranging from Riesling, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay to warm climate grapes such as Syrah/Shiraz.

The first winery of day two was the winery of Benzinger in their historic estate in Kirchheim where Volker Benzinger showed us some of the upcoming 2015 wines, which had been recently bottled. Volker’s focus was clearly on Rieslings and Pinots (Noir, Gris, Blanc) and he’s even doing an “Orange de Pinot” wine, his first orange wine and the first orange pinot we got to try this trip. We stayed there for a tasty lunch at their very appealing restaurant “Leininger Hof”, which we’d highly recommend should you ever be in the area.


Only one village ahead we found the small winery of the Brand family. Young winemakers Daniel and Jonas (25 & 22 yrs old) welcomed us in their typical vinoteca and showed us some of their latest projects such as a natural sparkling and an experimental natural Silvaner. Typically, a lot of their wines are about Riesling, but they also produce Pinot Noir and Dornfelder among others. It was clear to see that they respected tradition, but at the same time were very open to experimentation, which is something we love seeing as long as it’s within the rules of natural wine making. 


The very last stop of this two-day-trip was at the Demeter certified Schmitt winery. Wine makers Daniel and Bianka offered us quite a range of natural and orange wines. Among them were a Riesling, a Riesling Sekt (sparkling), an orange blend and a pretty rare wine produced in an original Georgian qvevri. Impressive!

What all the producers have in common is the fact that they’re family businesses, which have been operating for generations with the absolute conviction that wine has to be produced in a sustainable way with respect for nature. Some of them are already certified and some are about to get certified. Then there are those who just work according to the right ethical standards without the desire of getting certified at all. What’s important is that they all share the same idea. 

Over 100 wines were tasted over the course of two days from various vineyards with totally different soils. We mainly tasted Rieslings, but also tried a lot of Pinot Noirs and international white grapes – white wines, red wines and even orange wines. Some of the wines were as hoped or expected, but there were also a few real surprises. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the time to discover more of these vast regions. This does however give us a reason to come back for more and we certainly liked what we’ve seen, tried and tasted so far.

During our trip we visited six producers, equally divided among the two biggest wine regions of Germany; Rheinhessen and Pfalz.

Day 1: Rheinhessen – “Land der 100 Hügel“ (land of the 100 hills)
Rheinhessen is Germany’s biggest wine region and also known as the land of the 100 hills. It may come as no surprise that Riesling is very important here, but there are also other grapes present. The also well-known Pinot Noir, locally known as Spätburgunder, and Pinot Blanc as well as Gris have grown in popularity and the same can be said for the local and lesser known grape varieties such as Scheurebe, Dornfelder and Ortega. 

We had three producers on the agenda for the day, namely Thörle, Gutzler and Gröhl, which are all located in the middle of the hilly area covering the left bank of the Rhine Valley. 

Thörle was the first winery on our list. Upon arrival we were greeted by Christoph, one of of the two Thörle brothers, who showed us their wines and gave us a tour of their winery. The wines produced by Thörle are a typical expression of the chalky-salty limestone and shell terroir so commonly found in this part of the region. Riesling and Pinot Noir are their flagship wines, but also Chardonnay, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon play an important role in their wine making. 


After visiting Thörle we headed off to Gundheim to visit Gutzler. Gutzler is a bio-certified winery and a member of Germany’s elite “VDP” wineries. During our research it became apparent that German wineries value certification a lot more than their Italian counterparts who often see it as an expensive label designed for larger wineries who use it as a marketing tool. 

Aside from producing Riesling, Gutzler focuses strongly on creating quality red wines as was evident when we visited their impressive barrique cellar. One of their most remarkable wines is a Dornfelder produced with the grapes from a single vineyard.


We finished the day and our visit to Rheinhessen at the Gröhl winery in Weinolsheim where the vintner’s wife welcomed us in their brand new and state-of-the-art vinoteca. Just by strolling around their old cave-like wine cellar it became apparent that Riesling is king here. Their widely spread vineyards revealed however they also cultivate many other white grapes, as well as Pinot Noir.

Part 2 can be found here.

It’s fascinating and interesting to point out how many women from different backgrounds have chosen the hard work and sweat required to produce wine. Not all women who choose to become winemakers come from a winemaking family either, some of them do but there are many who have decided to do so later on during their lives because of a passion and love for wine; to make a change and start from zero. To learn the noble art of winemaking.

A choice to go back to work the land is perhaps above all a choice of values ​​which are different from those prevailing in today’s society. It’s a choice for the kind of freedom which still has tough rules and teaches you to be more determined in your dreams, because success won’t come cheap. The four women below took that risk and persevered, running companies and producing wines to be proud of.

Nicoletta Bocca, San Fereolo

Nicoletta Bocca came from Milan and had a passion for wine. In the early 90s she decided to move to Dogliani in Piedmont to start the San Fereolo winery. She knew nothing about the countryside, about growing grapes or about farming. Luckily, she could learn from her neighbour who had been a vine grower his entire life. Gradually as she learned the work, she tried to find a correspondence between her character and what she did, and tried to give depth and meaning to the phrase “wines with personality”.

Matilde Poggi, Le Fraghe

The owner of Le Fraghe, Matilde Poggi, has always been fascinated by the land marked by the changing of the seasons and her desire slowly grew to become part of it, to contribute to it, to learn how to listen to the vineyard and to bring forth from them her own wines. She had no ready-made furrow, and so she was able to experiment with grape varieties, training methods, and blends to create her own varieties, free from convention. Her wines were certainly appreciated, as can be seen from the 28 hectares of vineyards she currently owns.

Bandita, Cascina ‘Tavijn

Nadia Verrua is a fourth generation winemaker at Cascina ‘Tavijn, but her parents did not want her to follow into their footsteps. They wanted her to study and work in a different field, but she chose for wine regardless. The family came from rural Verrua Fenoglio where the winemaking was unrefined and only resulted in simple table wines. Nadia had the desire to create quality wines. Wines with personality that represented the indigenous grapes of her land and to restore dignity in the art of winemaking. She believed in natural authentic wines and started to convert the vineyards into organically operated ones. A move which has been very well received as her Barbera d’Asti is currently one of Vino Nostrum’s most sold wines.

Sara and Luca Carbone, Carbone Vini

Sara Carbone spent her childhood and adolescence at the foot of the Vulture volcano surrounded by vineyards. She studied in Rome, got a degree in sociology and moved on to an MBA. She dedicated herself to business & administration; a world far from the countryside and the vineyards.
But after she had been working first in England and then in Italy in the world made of social climbing, contracts and business, Sara realised that it was not for her. Her brother Luca convinced her to drop everything and to return to Basilicata in the vineyards. The year 2005 marked the first vintage of their wines. In winemaking Sara found a way to express her creativity. Working in the vineyard and in the cellar, to improve the taste and to make wine that tasted of her land, the land of the volcano.

Aglianico is an ancient Greek black grape brought to the southern regions of Italy by Greek settlers. These days the grape is mostly found in Basilicata and Campania, while it has almost completely disappeared in the country it originated from.

In Basilicata the Aglianico grape is primarily used in the province of Potenza to produce the region’s only DOCG wine; Aglianico del Vulture. The most important production area of Aglianico del Vulture is, as the name suggests, around the extinct Vulture volcano. Wine obtained from the vineyards situated on the slopes of the volcano are regarded as more elegant and of higher quality.

Despite mostly producing high quality wines, many small producers in Basilicata have been forced to sell their vineyards due to the economical crisis. As a result, there are only a few very good natural wine producers left to continue the production of this traditional wine.

In the neighbouring region of Campania the situation is different. Things are moving forward and the number of producers who are continuing the ancient art of winemaking is increasing.

The area surrounding the village of Taurasi is home to DOCG wines of the same name. It’s in this area that historical vineyards can still be found and thrive. All the historical vines have been analysed recently and the samples tested proved that many of the vines were over 200 years old while some of them have even surpassed the 300 years mark.

The ageing potential of the wines made with Aglianico grapes is impressive. Considered to be the cousin of Nebbiolo, the wines produced from Aglianico grapes are full-bodied with firm tannins and high acidity.

Like a true southerner, the Aglianico vine thrives in dry climates which receive generous amounts of sunshine. The grape has a tendency to ripen late with harvests taking place as late as mid November. If the grape is picked too early, or with excessive yields, it can be aggressively tannic.

When Aglianico wines are still young they are very tannic and concentrated, and they require a few years of ageing before becoming approachable. As it ages, the fruit becomes more pronounced and the tannins more balanced with the rest of the wine.

Interested in trying wines produced from Aglianico? We currently have several Aglianico-based wines in our collection. Fill up your cart with the Aglianico Tasting Pack.

Etna is an Italian wine DOC which covers the slopes of Mount Etna; the 3330m high active volcano that dominates the north-eastern corner of Sicily. The highest of Etna’s vineyards now rank among the highest in Italy.

Growing grapes on the slopes of an active volcano is not without obvious risks. The soil is a combination of volcanic soil and sand which is difficult to work with as well, but for those who manage the result can be very rewarding as the volcanic soil is very rich in minerals, formed by the disintegration of lava.

The steep terrain combined with the sandy volcanic soil makes tending the vines quite difficult. The vineyards are planted on 45-degree slopes and the loose soil is very difficult to farm while the wildly unpredictable weather and eruptions of the volcano makes the viticulture heroic.  

At the end of the 19th century Phylloxera, insects that feed on the roots and leaves of grapevines, destroyed much of Europe’s vineyards. However, the old vineyards of Mt. Etna were not touched by these pests because of the loose soil. Phylloxera cannot exist in such soil which prevented the lice from spreading. As a result, The area now hosts some the oldest vines still on their original rootstock.

The wines of Mt. Etna have been some of the hottest and most sought after wines in recent years and Etna has become one of Italy’s most exciting wine regions. Its volcanic soil and distinctive climate create wines with intense minerality that are rich in flavors.

After half a lifetime abroad, Davide Bentivegna decided to return to his roots and founded Etnella. Originally from the hills outside of Catania, he began his agricultural expedition in 2008. 2010 marks his first vintage on Etna, and he has since expanded his enterprise by acquiring more vineyards, orchards and land fertile for agriculture in his never-ending quest to interpret and transform the bounty of the volcano in a natural way.

The vineyards are trained in alberello style, or bush trained, an ancient method traditionally used on Etna. The vines are planted on land that is terraced with drystone walls constructed with the local volcanic stones so omnipresent on Etna’s slopes.

The close proximity of the vines (6,000 – 9,000 plants per hectare) creates fierce competition and forces the roots to point downward in the volcanic soil in search of water and nutrients.

Etnella’s contrade, or sub zones, are all based on the northeastern side of the volcano. Each contrada is treated separately since each parcel has a distinct lava stratification, mesoclimate, and exposition.The resulting wines are an impressive collection of the various expressions of Etna’s terroir.  

Vino Nostrum is an Etnella representative and currently stocks their Kaos Rosso and Anatema wines. For more information about Etnella and the wines, please visit https://vinonostrum.com/wineries/etnella