Poggio Bbaranèllo - Vignaioli Controvento — Silvia Pragliola & Lisa Gentili

We're a young, eco-friendly business (we have photovoltaic panels, a well for water supply, and a fireplace for heating), family-run by women, Silvia and Lisa. We're located in Montefiascone, in northern Lazio, at an altitude of 436 meters.

Our estate covers a total area of 38.3 hectares, divided into vineyards for the production of quality wine (4.40 ha), woodland (approximately 11.5 ha), and the remainder for green fodder (approximately 21.1 ha). Of the vineyards, 4.4 ha of grapes have been regularly planted, distributed between Trebbiano Toscano (50%), Trebbiano Giallo (known as Rossetto 40%), and Malvasia Lunga Toscana (10%). During the 2019 vintage, the first vinification was carried out, producing 2,500 bottles. We produce a variety of wines, all in very small quantities. While we released five styles in 2019, this new 2020 harvest is also bringing new styles to life. We enjoy experimenting a lot in the cellar, but at the same time, during the winemaking process, we try to give the wine the opportunity to fully express the characteristics of the terroir. We work with indigenous yeasts, using fermentation yeasts to improve the winemaking process. We do not use any oenological additives and we are careful to add very little sulfur (the wine with the highest sulfur content has 40 mg/l). In the vineyard, we fertilize with manure and green manure, and we treat with sulfur, copper, and zeolite. Management is entirely ours, from pruning, where we use the Simonit & Sirch method, to harvesting, where we collect the grapes in small crates and vinify them the same day to ensure they arrive fresh in the cellar. We have many projects in mind, including our dream of placing bees near our forest and planting olive trees. We strongly believe in returning to a less complex and dynamic life, and in reviving certain traditions, as well as doing things more slowly. Aware of this, we continue to pursue this choice day by day. (We live and work in Rome and travel back and forth to advance this project.) We chose Poggio Bbaranèllo as our name because we're on a beautiful hill overlooking Montefiascone on one side and the sea and Argentario in the distance on the other. Bbaranèllo is the dialect word for the north wind; our hill is so windy that it's sometimes impossible to stay on it.