Roberto Cristi grew up knowing the Poiesa farm — a property his family had farmed for seven generations in the hills around Carpaneto Piacentino, near Piacenza. After years in Turin, he returned in 2009, diploma in hand but drawn by something the city couldn't offer. He started by renting cellar space from Croci, a neighboring estate, while farming four hectares of his own. When that arrangement ended in 2013, he formalized La Poiesa as his own azienda agricola and hasn't looked back.
Backstory
The Poiesa farm has housed farmers and craftspeople for many generations. Roberto's return was a deliberate choice to revive the old way of doing things — without modern additions, without intervention, without compromise. He established organic certification with ICEA from the outset, guided by the conviction that the farm's identity should come through in every bottle.
The Region
The first hills of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines rise above the Po Valley near Piacenza in a landscape of heavy loam and brown clay soils — fertile, complex, and better suited to pét-nat and light maceration wines than the richer, more alcoholic styles common elsewhere. La Poiesa occupies a panoramic position on these hills, looking out over the flatlands below.
Vineyards and Farming
Roberto farms four hectares of organically certified vines (ICEA) on loam and clay soils. Grape varieties include Ortrugo, Malvasia di Candia, Barbera, and Croatina — all indigenous to the Colli Piacentini. Work is done by hand, with no synthetic inputs of any kind.
Winemaking
All fermentations proceed spontaneously with ambient yeasts. Macerations typically run two to four weeks before gentle pressing. Sparkling wines are made using the ancestral method (pét-nat). Wines are bottled unfiltered and unfined, with minimal or no added SO2. Aging takes place in bottle or in old barrique.
The Wines
The lineup includes Filom (Malvasia di Candia pét-nat), Burbero (Ortrugo pét-nat), Livione, Castlass (Rosato dell'Emilia), and Marassa. The wines share a lively, earthy quality rooted in their clay-rich terroir and Roberto's determination to keep human intervention to an absolute minimum.
