My first profound contact with the world of wine was during a journey with Peter Dipoli in Alsace.

I began to be aware of wine in a different way, trying to understand the content of that mysterious and fascinating heritage of aroma that every glass offers. I also understood that even a small winery can be successful by producing wine honestly and openly. Before, as a supplier of grape to a cooperative, I thought I couldn’t handle personally both production and sales: I thought it unsustainable and consequently I accepted the powerful cooperative chain.

Visiting Alsace, where there are many small wine-growers, I could see instead that I could probably do it almost alone. Then I learnt of Burgundy, where I found wineries that are 300 years old, with mould on the walls, with very little technical equipment but full of human riches: because wine after all, it’s man that makes it and if you have the will and land with a vocation you can do something good, however small you are.

After these journeys, in 1991, I decided I’d be a wine-maker. In 1996 I carved out a space where I could vinify my grapes and in 1997 I started, using part of the vintage for the cooperative; and after three years I left them completely.