04-09-2013
Stefano Bellott’s Cascina degli Ulivi in Strada Mazzola 14 in Novi Ligure (Alessandria), tel. +39.0143.744598. Their strong point is the wine, but you should not neglect the restaurant. And you can also sleep in one of the four rooms of the agritourism, conceived coherently with green architecture indications
We’re in the countryside around Novi Ligure, Alessandria. Hills, vineyards, green fields. And the smell of nature mixed with the aroma of freshly baked bread. We’re at Cascina degli Ulivi, a farm spreading over 35 hectares, of which twenty are destined to vine growing. Here, since 1984 the biodynamic method has been adopted, ensuring the maximum respect for plants and soil in order to obtain healthy, ripe and tasty products. In the vineyards, there’s very little use of copper (less than 2kg per hectare per year) and powdered sulphur. Vinification in the cellar is conducted without the use of oenological additives (including selected yeasts) and without adding sulphur dioxide. Besides wines, vegetables and fruits and cereals are also produced together with breeding courtyard animals and cattle.
Patron Stefano Bellotti, the president of the Italian branch of Renaissance des Appellations association
Listening to him is a pleasure. Just like when we discovered, together with him, that the clayey earth has a damp aroma, just like the one you can smell in the cellar, to put it simply, because it is rich in humus. Bellotti explained to us that he works every other line of vines and uses a biodynamic mixture called cow horn manure to facilitate the earth’s functionality. As for vinification, in the cellar, even during fermentation, he uses 90% used barrels made with oak and acacia, as well as steel tanks.
There are different wines produced. White wines are mostly obtained from Cortese grapes, from Semplicemente Vino Belloti Bianco created to be easily drinkable, a match for everyday meals, to wines obtained from 60 year old vineyards such as Gavi, Filagnotti and Montemarino. To a lesser extent, other grape varieties serve to produce A demua, which in the dialect of Genoa means "fun" and "play", inviting people to be distracted from their daily problems with a good glass of this nectar, as well as La Merla Bianca, in which Sauvignon blanc and Traminer aromatico create a dry and aromatic wine, with fruity notes and a good sapidity, freshness and persistence on the palate, and the Moscato passito.
The power ot the soil
Stories of men, women and bottles that enrich the galaxy of wine, in Italy and in the world
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