Il Farneto Frisant Bianco Pet-Nat 2024

Azienda Agricola Il Farneto was founded in the mid-1990s by Marco Bertoni in Castellarano, Province of Reggio Emilia, on the boundary between the hills of Scandiano and Canossa. Bertoni's stated intent from the beginning was to contribute to sustainable agriculture by producing grapes and wine while working in harmony with the surrounding environment. The estate covers roughly 34 hectares of land in total, of which 8 hectares are planted to vineyards, with the remainder given over to woods and the fossiliferous gullies and natural gullied terrain that characterize this part of the Reggio Emilia hills.

The 8 hectares of vineyards are densely planted at 4,000 vines per hectare on sandy clay soils with limestone at around 820 feet elevation. The vines average 15 years of age. All vineyard work is carried out manually. The estate holds biodynamic certification, meaning that both the farming calendar and the treatments used in the vineyard comply with biodynamic principles: preparations from plant and mineral materials, lunar calendar timing, and an explicit commitment to the long-term biological vitality of the soil.

Winemaking at Il Farneto is handled by Flavio Restani, who works with the same philosophy Marco Bertoni established: minimal intervention, indigenous yeasts only, no fining, no filtration, and minimal sulfite use. The wines are named in reference to the local Rio Rocca river, celebrated in this corner of Reggio Emilia for its distinctive geology and natural character. Large French oak barrels up to 500 liters are part of the cellar, but all are old and neutral, used only for wines that benefit from gentle oxidative maturation.

The range covers the full spectrum of the estate's terroir: the Frisant Bianco and God Save the Wine for Spergola-based sparkling whites, the Frisant Rosato and Frisant Rosso for Lambrusco Grasparossa, and the Giandon wines for skin-contact and red blends.

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The hills between Scandiano and Canossa rise from the Po plain in the Province of Reggio Emilia, on the western edge of Emilia-Romagna, forming one of the most historically layered wine landscapes in northern Italy. The area was at the heart of medieval power in Italy — the Castello di Canossa sits on a rocky outcrop in these hills, the site where Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV famously stood barefoot in the snow in 1077 seeking absolution from Pope Gregory VII, with Countess Matilda of Tuscany mediating the conflict. That same landscape, marked by fossiliferous gullies, forested ridges, and castles, is where Spergola, the area's defining indigenous white grape, has been grown since at least the fifteenth century.

The Colli di Scandiano e di Canossa DOC covers these hills south of Reggio Emilia, where vineyards typically sit between 490 and 1,310 feet above sea level on sandy clay and limestone soils that drain well and warm quickly in the Mediterranean-influenced spring and summer. The climate is continental with a strong Po Valley influence: warm, humid summers with the risk of fog in autumn, and cold winters. The Apennines to the south provide shelter and create microclimatic conditions favorable to viticulture, including reliable summer heat and diurnal temperature variation that preserves aromatic freshness in white varieties.

Spergola is the white grape most closely identified with these hills. For centuries confused with Sauvignon Blanc, it was confirmed as a genetically distinct variety by DNA analysis in 2000, earning its own registration in Italy's National Grape Variety Catalogue and formal recognition in the Colli di Scandiano e Canossa DOC. The area also grows Lambrusco Grasparossa alongside Spergola, and the entire territory sits within the broader Emilia-Romagna food culture of Parmigiano-Reggiano, prosciutto, and traditional balsamic vinegar production.