The Cellar

The wine runs off by itself. What does not run off, we do not take.

Here, wine is never squeezed out. The twelve grapes arrive by hand and go into the vat, where they ferment on their skins with their own yeasts. Then we open the vat and the wine runs off by itself, under its own weight: this is the free-run wine, and only this goes forward. Whatever stays in the skins, we leave there, and the skins go to the grappa. Then come the oak barrels, and the time the wine needs. Giuseppe Lento, known in the village as Don Pino, learned the craft beside his father Ciccio. Today his sons do it the same way.

Grapes in a wooden basket at the cellar entrance

The vat opened, without pushing the wine

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The vat and the free-run wine

In the vat, the grapes ferment on their skins. Fermentation starts on its own, with the grapes' own yeasts, at a controlled temperature: we add no sulphites and we do not correct the wine. When the time comes, we open the vat and let the wine run off, without pushing. What flows out is the free-run wine. The press never touches the skins, and every year we give up part of the harvest to keep only this. The skins, still full, go to the family grappa.

The free-run wine from the vat to a wooden tub

The barrels and the bottle

Before it goes into barrel, the wine passes through plant-based filters and comes out clear. Then it matures in oak: the 2022 vintage stayed in barrel from the harvest until January 2026. We taste it often and take our time deciding when it is ready. We bottle by hand. Every vintage has its own run, set before bottling and never exceeded: the 2022 is 3,333 bottles. Every label carries its own number.

Why this way

With a press we would make more wine. We do not use one because Don Pino never did, and because the wine that leaves this cellar carries our name. The result is fewer bottles, each with its own number.

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