Il Farneto sits in the hills above Modena and Reggio Emilia, along the Secchia river in Emilia-Romagna, at around 300 metres on clay and chalk soils. Founded by Marco Bertoni in the mid-1990s and biodynamic since 2003, it pairs a vision of genuinely natural wine with a working commitment to sustainable, mixed agriculture rather than industrial Lambrusco.
Backstory
Bertoni established the farm in the mid-1990s with the goal of making genuinely natural wine while contributing to sustainable agriculture. He converted to biodynamic principles in 2003, a stance that still governs both vineyard and cellar, with all work carried out by hand and a deep respect for natural processes.
The Region
This is Lambrusco country, but Il Farneto works the hills rather than the flat Po valley floor. The estate lies at around 300 metres elevation on clay and chalk soils, cooler and more marginal than the plain. That altitude and the poorer soils lend the wines a freshness, bite, and clarity that mass-produced Lambrusco rarely shows.
Vineyards & Farming
The property combines roughly 6 hectares of vines with further plantings of Spergola and Marzemino and several hectares of wheat, reflecting a whole-farm, mixed-agriculture approach rather than a monoculture. Work is done by hand under biodynamic practice. The plantings lean heavily on indigenous varieties, including Lambrusco Grasparossa, Spergola, Marzemino, Malbo Gentile, Malvasia, and the near-extinct local red Termarina, which Bertoni helps keep alive.
Winemaking
All wines ferment with native yeasts. For the frizzante and spumante bottlings, a portion of fresh juice from the same pressing is added to restart fermentation in bottle, an ancestral-style second fermentation rather than added sugar or cultured yeast. The wines are unfined, unfiltered, and made with minimal added sulphur, so each bottle carries the imprint of its vintage.
The Wines
The range centres on sparkling and lightly fizzy wines, including a Frisant Rosso and Frisant Rosato, a Brut Nature, a rose, and skin-contact orange wines from Spergola and the Giandon bottlings in both orange and red. Together they show the estate's hill-grown, biodynamic, low-intervention character: fresh, savoury, and a world away from sweet, industrial Lambrusco.
