Etoile du Raisin, 2007

Cascina degli Ulivi by Stefano Bellotti is a Biodynamic farm settled in the “Gavi” zone in Piedmont (Novi Ligure, Alessandria). Stefano Bellotti has been one of the pioneers of biodynamic agricolture in Italy, as he started in 1977 with organic agricolture and then, in 1984, started working in Biodynamic. He was the Italian President of “Renaissance des Appelations” the biodynamic certification created by Nicolas Joly, Coulee de Serrant, in France. Stefano Bellotti has actually been one of the pioneers of natural wine making in Italy,  representing an important experience and history to defend for the majority of nowadays natural producers. Since he sadly passed away in September 2018 his daughter Ilaria is carrying on the huge work Stefano has done through the years. The farm is composed by 33 hectares, 22 of these are vineyards, then there are fields where old varieties of cereals are grew for the home made bread with sourdough, a vegetable garden, fields for cows for the production of milk and cheese, woods and a fruit garden. Bees. Cascina degli Ulivi also offers an Agriturismo where guests can stay or dine enjoying a meal which is for the 90% (or more) a domestic production . For what concerns wine, la Cascina produces mainly “Cortese”, the local white grape for   the production of “Gavi”, but also “Barbera” and “Nibio” the very old local variety of “Dolcetto”, that Stefano rescued and decided to preserve. 13-14 labels, depending on the year, as the idea is to express, through a very artisanal and carefull work, the differences between each parcel or cru and add value to each bottled produced. All the grapes become wine through a spontaneous fermentation in big and old barrels of oak (usually) following Piedmont’s tradition. Wines are all “made” without any enological technique and no addition of sulphites either. The result is: long aging wines.