The Vineyards – Details and Characteristics

Vigna Gatti

Vigna Gatti (named after its previous owners) surrounds the cemetery of Paderna. Planted with Barbera and Dolcetto, it also includes scattered vines of Moscato and table grapes. The vineyard faces southeast and covers just over one and a half hectares.
The soil here is red and clayey, but also rich in limestone rocks—many of which we’ve removed, along with countless fossilized seashells!
The vines are all over 60 years old. We divide the vineyard into three sections: Gatti Alto, Gatti Medio, and Gatti Basso. Gatti Alto is the area we’ve begun to train in the traditional bush vine method (alberello). We acquired the vineyard in 2011.

Vigna Battorella

Located along the road from Paderna to Carezzano, just beyond Vigna Gatti and separated from it by a field of alfalfa we purchased in 2020—which we plan to start planting in 2022—Battorella shares many characteristics with Gatti: it faces southeast and has the same red, clay-rich soil.
It’s a small vineyard, planted on sloping ground (giropoggio) between 1950 and 2002 by the previous owner Lionello and his father. Their choice of grape varieties reflects a personal and eclectic taste: in less than half a hectare, you’ll find alternating rows of Barbera, Dolcetto, Cortese, Favorita, Brachetto, and an aromatic variety that an ampelographer couldn’t identify. It has since been dubbed Aleatico di Paderna and included in the regional collection of Piedmontese grape varieties.
The name Battorella probably derives from the wind that often “beats” down on the area—battere meaning “to hit” in Italian.

Rampone Alto

Visible on the opposite side of the road from Gatti and Battorella, this vineyard faces northwest.
Here, the soil is completely different: it’s the typical Tortonian terrain, composed of white marl with a high silt content.
In 2012, we grafted the entire vineyard—about half a hectare, originally planted in 2002—with Timorasso.
Then in 2020, we finally cleared the overgrown banks and the trees that had been casting partial shade over the vines.

Rampone Basso

Rampone Alto lies just below, descending the northern slope of the hill near the Paderna cemetery. The name Rampone comes from the steepness of this hillside (rampa meaning “slope” in Italian)—though to be fair, the opposite side is no less steep…
Although it’s the youngest of all the vineyards we’ve acquired (planted in 2007, and ours since 2016), it’s also the one that was most poorly designed and maintained in its early years—so much so that it will likely be the first we’ll have to uproot. 🙁

Bulilia

Perhaps our favorite vineyard, this one enjoys a stunning location, surrounded by woods, silence… and wildlife (wild boars, roe deer, and more).
It’s the vineyard you have to abandon—or reach on foot—at the first sign of rain.
It’s the one where, if it doesn’t rain, the deer will eat all the grapes.
It’s the one that takes a proper walk to get to, but also the one whose grapes add something special—an extra spark—to our wines.
Here we grow Cortese, Favorita, and Barbera.
Lionello, who planted it in 1976, used to call the white grapes harvested here “the gold of Bulilia.”
You reach it by descending from Rampone and heading into the woods and across a few fields.

Vigna del Tasso

Tasso is the nickname of Mr. Pierluigi, who has been leasing us this vineyard since 2011.
It borders Bulilia on the uphill side and was planted in 1955. It’s exclusively white grapes—mainly Cortese and Favorita.
This vineyard, too, is planted on terraced slopes (giropoggio) in the middle of the woods, with all the challenges that come with such a location.

Vigna del Torchio

Torchio is the nickname of the elderly gentleman—now in his eighties—who recently retired and passed on his vineyards to us (this one and La Serra).
We also call it “Sette File”—“Seven Rows”—because it consists of seven very long rows forming a narrow strip of land. It borders uphill the first block of the Simonelli vineyard, which we planted in 2015.
You reach it by following the dirt road that starts right in front of the Paderna cemetery.
It faces northwest, and the main variety grown here is Barbera—though you’ll find a bit of everything, including Moscato.

Vigna di Matteo

Not a particularly old vineyard—planted in 1971—Vigna di Matteo is primarily Barbera, although, as is often the case, other varieties are scattered throughout, including the inevitable single row of white grapes.
It is planted in the rittochino style, with rows running straight down the slope following the natural fall line. This layout makes vineyard work more manageable but can increase the risk of soil erosion on steeper hillsides.
Vigna di Matteo borders our Simonelli vineyard on two sides, Torchio’s vineyard on another, and Tasso’s on the last. The vineyard takes its name from Matteo, the son of Lionello, who chose it and later bought it in the 1990s.

Vigna di Simonelli

The first vineyard we planted ourselves, in 2015, 2016, and 2019. We bought the land because we loved its northwest exposure and the white soil typical of Tortonian terroirs—a white marl also known as Sant’Agata marl (marna di Sant’Agata). Twenty years ago, this was the vineyard where Mr. Piero Simonelli’s father used to “break his back” working.
That’s why Piero had the heartfelt wish to see a beautiful vineyard once again in what had become an impenetrable thicket. He was very generous with us when it came to the sale, but clearing and planting these two hectares took all the energy and enthusiasm of our thirty-year-old selves…
Everything here is strictly Timorasso.

Serra

Now we move on. Serra is a world of its own—you can’t reach it from the Paderna cemetery. It’s a hill between Paderna and Spineto, accessible only by dirt tracks and country roads. For us, La Serra is divided into four parts:
Serra Alta – the upper section, younger and more uniformly planted with Barbera;
Serra Bassa – the lower section, older and a true “stew” of Piedmontese varieties;
Pierino – the part we lease from another octogenarian from Paderna;
and La Serra Nuova – the section we planted ourselves in 2020, entirely with Timorasso. In this south-facing hectare and a half of vineyard, even the late-ripening varieties reach maturity in the first days of September. It’s therefore always the first vineyard to be harvested.

Casoni

To conclude, this is the vineyard that the ampelographer from Spineto strictly forbade us to uproot.
A true collection of genotypes and grape varieties, it was mapped out several years ago.
It’s perhaps the oldest vineyard we manage, under our care since 2016.