Cascina degli Ulivi
Cascina degli Ulivi is situated on the Gavi hills in the south of Piedmont, it is owned by the Bellotti family since 1930. Stefano, barely 18 years old, started managing the small agricultural activity in 1977 when there wasn’t much more than 1 hectares of vineyards left.
With the support and teachings from an old neighbor, illiterate but both passionate and competent, he started making wine in the complete absence of dogma’s from modern oenology. Stefano considered this one of his great fortunes, having encountered these farmers, heirs of ancient knowledge and ancestral practices, that taught him things he would never have learned otherwise.
In contrast to the agriculture of the time, Stefano prefers from the beginning an organic approach, a choice made out of instinct that makes without question one of the precursors of biodynamic agriculture.
Still today Cascina degli Ulivi is a biodynamic farm, mostly known for its wines, but the project encompasses more than just that. They produce a great variety of vegetables and cereals, fruits, as well as breeding their own animals for milk, meat and eggs.
It goes without saying, the vineyards are grown biodynamically. Treatments are limited to copper and sulfur. In the cellar, all the wines being produced are natural, without additives, starting from their own grapes.
To quote Stefano: “It is right for each food product to be unique, as each of us is unique and unrepeatable. The joy of living, the joy of the palate, the joy tasting is due precisely to this uniqueness that also translates into conviviality. This uniqueness can only come from good agriculture and real plants.”