Nebraie Farm - Andrea Tacchella

NEBRAIE was founded in 2014 and is a family-run business. In addition to vines, the primary crop, the farm also sows and harvests hay for fodder, legumes for green manure, and ancient grains. The project began with the idea of revitalizing a mountainous area by dedicating itself to the production and sale of wine in a place where, until the depopulation that began in the 1960s, vine cultivation was widespread and, in addition to Timorasso, numerous grape varieties, many of which were unknown, existed. The project was made possible through the careful restoration of the family's land, respecting biodiversity and the principles of organic farming (the farm has been certified since 2019 and self-certified since its inception).

The company is located in the Borbera Valley, in the heart of the Ligurian Apennines, yet still in the province of Alessandria, at an altitude between 450 and 600 meters above sea level. The climate is characterized by cooler temperatures than the nearby hilly areas and frequent temperature swings. The area is breezy, and the sea breeze often appears, bringing with it mild sea temperatures. To promote biodiversity and life in all its forms, I host 30 beehives from a friend's company, which produce various types of honey: acacia, thyme, chestnut, and wildflower. The company's vineyard area is 4 hectares, divided into three plots, one of which, NEBRAIE, gives the farm its name. The Timorasso grape variety is planted in clay-loam soils with a significant presence of gravel and moderate limestone. The terroir is characterized primarily by the presence of reddish-gray schists and Savignone conglomerates, detrital masses composed of rounded clasts of varying sizes, in the subsoil. The vineyards are all located between 500 and 600 meters above sea level and face southwest. They are arranged in a straight line, with a planting distance of 0.9 x 2.4 meters, and are trained using the Guyot system. Soil management is of fundamental importance to me because to produce a true and natural wine, it is necessary to maintain the soil's humus and preserve biodiversity. I do this primarily through the distribution of organic manure pellets and the practice of green manure, that is, sowing legumes, home-grown ancient grains, and other naturally occurring species in alternate rows. I combine these practices with aeration and tillage of the unsown rows in spring and summer. During the season, I periodically mow the inter-row areas with a chainsaw, which further protects the soil from summer evaporation through a cover crop, a type of mulch. I then mechanically work the under-row areas with rotating inter-row mowers, both for cutting the grass and for working the soil. Beyond the soil, I pay close attention to plant management, starting with winter pruning: I use the Simonit and Sirch method, a gentle, branched pruning method that allows the plant to maintain greater balance over time. The work continues in spring and summer with green pruning, a term that summarises multiple, extremely important operations: selecting the right number of shoots and then supporting them along the row; thinning to aerate the area around the bunches; and, before harvest, to promote ripening; and finally, bunch thinning. Throughout the growing season until harvest, I carry out a series of spray-drying treatments consisting only of copper hydroxide and wettable sulfur, both in liquid form; flavescence, by law, is kept at bay with pyrethrum. A few days before harvesting, I select several baskets of grapes to create the pied de cuve. Without this ancient technique, natural alcoholic fermentation would be left to chance, with many risks. The grapes are then pressed. After a couple of days, the indigenous yeasts begin fermentation, and the must typically reaches full fermentation within a week. The harvest is then carried out by hand into crates in the vineyard. Trailer by trailer, I transport the grapes to the cellar, where they undergo gentle direct pressing to maintain their freshness and integrity. The resulting must is then transferred to stainless steel tanks where, if necessary, I can control the fermentation temperature. Fermentation occurs with indigenous yeasts, and a few days after starting, I add the fully fermenting must from the pied de cuve. At the end of fermentation, I rack the wine to retain only the fine lees, and if the vintage requires it, I add sulfur dioxide. From this point on, the wine ages on the lees until bottling. The wine is unfiltered and undergoes no other oenological processes.