My name is Marcello and I have been working at international level for 30 years, mainly with large multinational business organisations, in a very specialistic niche.
My passion is to try and understand the land and its essence. I like places where nature and man are interlaced in harmony and one can feel this intimate connection by the energy that it expresses. Vineyards and olive groves are such places, and I would like to share discoveries and experiences with you.
After years of travelling for work, I felt the need to reconnect with the land and its essence. I reminisced the hills that looked like a sea, covered with vineyards and trees, houses, churches, castles and meadows, and the valley covered in fields and woods, where watercourses and road traffic flowed that loved at first sight at age 17.
Back then, I had gone to harvest grapes in the Monferrato, one of Italy’s prime wine areas in Piemonte. That’s what I wanted to connect to again.
There, I had felt only the joy of being in the vineyard, intoxicated by the scents of grapes, flowers, pears and apples.
I had had my first grape must from hand collected and hand pressed grapes – not the first grape juice I had ever tasted, but the first one to which I had contributed. It tasted acidulous… almost bitter, and left my mouth dry, with the desire to drink water… but it was a concentrate of earth, sun, rain and the work of man. It was a revelation, the one we should always perceive the moment we take a sip of wine, when the wine is genuine. Since that day, for me a wine is only good when it fills you with joy and happiness, because it conveys the essence of the land from where it comes. It has soul!
But the location of the vineyards on Bricco Lu, the fact of being above the fog and sunbathing for a long time, would have made the wine more than pleasant after a few years of aging. The harvest lasted ten days.
I do not know if it was the emotion or enthusiasm of the moment, or maybe because I already felt a strong bond with the land and the wine… but I understood that I wanted to continue this journey into the land of wine – Vinland.
My grandmother Erminia, beloved by all our big family, because she always had a good word for everyone and dispensed her wisdom with simplicity, told me how her father, Gaetano, had been one of the largest wine merchants in Milan. Gaetano travelled to Sicily at least once a year from where he had his barrels of fine Marsala wine and less prized wines transported, strong and full-bodied, to be “blended” with the more fruity, but also lighter wines from the North. She concluded smiling that this new activity of mine was due to the call of the blood! I would like to invite you to travel with us through the land of wine, in the footsteps of my great-grandfather Gaetano Verganti.
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Winemaking
Wine and Winemaking
Wine
Wine is a product of the earth and of man. It arrives at our table from the vineyard in a bottle, passing through a vat and a barrel. To really get to know it, we must first acquaint ourselves with the vineyard and the people who grow it, draw the grapes from it and turn it into wine. To make good wine, you need love for the land, because the future of those who grow it depends on it. You need passion, and you need the right knowledge as a winemaker. These are handed down from generation to generation, taught in schools or by expert oenologists, but only good grapes can give good wine.
How many of us, at home, in a restaurant or at the supermarket, can pick up a bottle and say: I know where it comes from, I know who makes it and what is behind it?
We want to give you the opportunity to get to know the real wine, from its origins to your table. On our journey we will go to discover small producers and their lands, even before their wines. This is our aspiration: to take you with us to discover "real wines made by real people".
Wine, or rather Wines
We believe that there are two great types of the product "wine". The vast majority are wines produced on a large scale, very widespread and well known. For a consumer, the norm is to associate a product with a label. The label signifies what kind of product is inside the package - it is somehow the guarantor. If you uncork a "Mouton Cadet”, a “Blue Nun” or open a "Tavernello" tetra pack, you do so knowing what you will find, and this regardless of the year, or even the land, in which the wine was produced. One may roughly know where Mouton Cadet comes from, but honestly, does anyone have an idea where the Tavernello grapes come from? “Consistency" is what these wines offer, whether they are big or small, does not matter. (In truth, Mouton Cadet offers far more than just consistency). With regard to “consistency”, these wines resemble industrial products, such as Coca-Cola or Carlsberg – products for which the name alone reveals the qualities. It is the strength of the brand. There are also many generic products, such as pasteurised milk, of which we know what to expect. They are safe, (arguably) healthy and have a predictable taste because they are practically the same, as once they undergo pasteurisation, all those little microorganisms that create distinctive flavours fade away.
This is nothing negative. On the contrary, brands and labels greatly simplify our choices. These are industrial products, where the hand of man weighs at least as much as that of nature. They are products, where the "miracle" of transforming grapes into wine is performed with scientific and technological knowledge and the main characteristic of these products is “consistency”, so that the consumer knows what he is buying. Consistency at this level, however, does not exist in nature and hence is the affirmation of man over nature. We prefer to leave this to the great names and large retailers. In any case, you would not need to join our journey to find such wines!
The other "product" wine is produced on a small, artisanal scale. It is a product that reflects the earth, grapes, climate and wise hand of the winemaker. These wines vary from each other, from year to year, from vineyard to vineyard, while maintaining the same label. Some are produced according to the dictates of organic farming, others follow the anthroposophical philosophy of biodynamics, and others yet are made with "conventional" interventions reduced to the bare minimum. They have one thing in common that is fundamental for us: they are produced by passionate people and from grapes grown "with love". They are natural wine, where the additives are limited to a minimum and never used to create "consistency". They reflect a territory, vintage, person, not a company that identifies itself with an emblem, symbol, label… in other words, wine with soul. The wines we want to present to you are "juice of the earth" and not a sophisticated industrial product.
In principle, winemaking is a spontaneous chemical process initiated and governed by human intervention. People wait until grapes are ripe, collect them, press them, wait for the juices to ferment, decide at which moment the fermentation must be interrupted, the wine must be separated from the skins, put into large or small containers and aged… until it is ready to be bottled, sold and drunk. Each of these steps requires human intervention and each of these steps is based on human experience and knowledge. Since the last century and the progress of chemistry, human intervention is less empirical and increasingly scientific. It is so developed, that soil is analysed in labs and with the aid of drones and satellite pictures, it is established which vines to plant in exact spots. Micro sensors monitor the microclimate in the vineyards, the presence of moulds, fungi, parasites and other threats. The level of “readiness” of mature grapes is assessed with high-tech machinery. Science is widely being used to create products that meet the consumers’ palate and sell, to optimise the use of labour and machinery and allow the people who work in the vineyards and in the wine cellars, the marketing gurus, sales force and above all, the investors, to make a profitable living and a return on their investment. Wine is, after all, big business! Well, not for everyone. For many small, or very small vintners, it is passion, it is a vision, a purpose in life to make true, authentic wines. The idea of Vinland was born when we tired of the large wine productions and decided to explore the world of small wines, made “next door” by people and nature, not by industrial processes. When we first visited Paride Chiovini in Sizzano - and such visits can take hours of long conversations - after showing us around his vineyards, he told us how much he loved spending time there. “It makes me oblivious, because I’m so happy there”, he said. One day, while in his beloved vineyard, he received a call from a restaurant he supplies. They asked for an urgent delivery as they were out of stock and had a big party of guests coming. Paride went back to his cellar, loaded his car and drove off. On the road he realised that he was still wearing his dirty clothes and boots covered in soil and dust. Too late, he thought. A Jaguar was parked in front of the restaurant and a very elegant gentleman drove off in it. The restaurant manager asked with a wry smile “ Did you just see that Jaguar leave? That was Mr. A., a colleague of yours”. Paride knew that Mr. A. was one of the best known winemakers in Italy, whose family business exported many thousands of prestigious bottles globally. He was puzzled, felt embarrassed in his dirty working clothes and regretted not having shaken hands with the great man. Then, as he drove back, he realised that no, he did not want to be like Mr. A. He wanted to be just like he was: bound to the soil, happy in the vineyard. At Vinland we have wines from many passionate winemakers like Paride Chiovini, and we are happy to introduce their wines to you, and tell you something about them.
