Choice of Lives - Gianluca Sinigaglia

I chose to become a winemaker. A choice that radically changed my entire life. After too long a time on my journey, I encountered the vine again and fell in love all over again. I wanted with all my might that vines and wine would become my future. I started from scratch and had to build everything with my own hands: I found my little patch of vine in the Euganean Hills, the place where I grew up, and then the winery.

At that point, that shapeless mass that was only a dream in my head took shape and became reality. The old vines, ranging in age from twenty-five to eighty years, are grown on a steep terraced slope on the eastern side of the Euganean Hills, where the constant wind and the marl and white scaglia soil strongly characterize the grapes. I practice certified organic farming, limiting treatments to those strictly necessary, using only copper and sulfur. The vines are not forced, placing their physiological and vegetative needs before their productive ones. Almost all work is done by hand. The philosophy adopted in the vineyard continues in the cellar: respect, manual work, and minimal intervention. Fermentation occurs without the addition of yeasts other than those naturally present on the grapes. Malolactic fermentation is always performed, and the aging times are dictated by the wine's evolution. I use no oenological additives, except for modest doses of sulfites when necessary. No filtration or clarification is performed: only time completes the work. The wines are crafted entirely by hand, from the vineyard to the bottle, as every authentic artisanal process should be. Wines that embrace time and confidently lead into the future: wines steeped in memory, living with perspective.