Terroir
Soil
The hills formed 5 million years ago where once there was the Adriatic seabed. The vineyards are located at 400 mt. above the sea level and are exposed in full sun; limestone soil with a predominance of clay, blue marls and chalk characterize the Contrada San Michele. Generally, the harvest takes place in September.
Vineyard
One vineyard, one wine. We work on our cru. All the works in the vineyard are performed manually from the Guyot pruning to the removal of the branches, from the binding to the green pruning. The mowing is mechanical. As a fertilizer, we use mixed green manure of legume crops such as fava beans, peas, sainfoin, clover, lupins, rye-grass, vetches, and alfalfa. We follow the guidelines of biodynamic agriculture using preparations such as cow horn manure (BD 500) and cow horn silica (BD 501). In order to prevent or contain the onset of mildew and oidium, we use mine sulfur (not the oil-by product) and non-synthetic copper in a limited amount in order not to burden the soil. We use rain-water that we gather from the roofs and we produce our own electricity by means of photovoltaic panels. The moon phases are strictly followed for every vineyard and winery.
Winery
Spontaneous fermentation for all our wines to express the terroir at its best. We ferment our white wines off the skins an there is no maceration; the whole grapes are lightly pressed. Pied de cuve and fermentation take place in stainless steel containers or in wood barrels. Long maturing and aging on fine lees. Light filtering only when and if necessary. Our red wines are young and fresh and the grapes destemmed and crushed. They have a short maceration on the skins and are fermented in a stainless steel container. All the reds are unfiltered.
Yield
Our optimal production is around 30,000 bottles from our vineyards located in Contrada San Michele. 15,000 bottles of CAPOVOLTO (Doc), 7,000 bottles of PASSOLENTO (Docg), 7,000 bottles of BASTIANCONTRARIO (Igp) and 2,500 bottles of Metodo Classico. We employ photovoltaic panels for our electricity supply and we use rainwater in order to be environmentally friendly. To give our small contribution to the reduction of CO2 emissions we use light bottles that are below 400gr.