Il Farneto God Save the Wine 2022

Azienda Agricola Il Farneto is an 8-hectare estate in Castellarano, positioned between the hills of Scandiano and Canossa in western Emilia-Romagna. Marco Bertoni founded the project in the mid-1990s with the specific ambition of reclaiming quality natural viticulture in a zone dominated for decades by industrial-scale Lambrusco production. Il Farneto sits on approximately 34 hectares of total land, of which 8 are under vine. The estate at around 250 metres is surrounded by woodland and fossiliferous gullies — ravines whose ancient marine sediment gives the soils an unusual mineral richness. The estate has practised biodynamic farming since 2003 and carries full biodynamic certification.

Winemaker Flavio Restani oversees both vineyard management and cellar work. All operations are conducted by hand. Vineyards are planted at the relatively dense density of 4,000 vines per hectare, and vines average 15 to 20 years old. The sandy clay and limestone soils are farmed without synthetic inputs of any kind. In the cellar, every wine at Il Farneto is fermented with indigenous yeasts exclusively, bottled without fining or filtration, and with minimal or no added sulfites depending on the cuvée and intended market.

Il Farneto works with a range of indigenous Emilian varieties — Lambrusco Grasparossa, Trebbiano Modenese, Spergola, Marzemino, Malbo Gentile, and Malvasia — producing a diverse range of still, sparkling, and ancestral-method wines that collectively provide a portrait of the zone's viticultural heritage. Where old large French oak barrels are used for aging, they are many years old and contribute nothing beyond gentle oxygen contact. The estate is a closed farming system — Marco Bertoni also grows wheat and raises animals on the property, integrating the wider ecology of the land into the viticulture.

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Emilia-Romagna occupies north-central Italy from the Po River basin in the north to the Apennine ridge in the south, extending from the Adriatic coast in the east to the borders of Liguria and Piedmont in the west. It is one of Italy's most productive agricultural regions, internationally associated with Parmigiano-Reggiano, prosciutto di Parma, traditional balsamic vinegar of Modena, mortadella, and a tradition of hand-rolled pasta that is unmatched elsewhere in Italy.

Viticulture here is ancient and deeply embedded in daily life. The best wines come from the hillside zones — the Colli — that run along the southern edge of the Po plain, where the Apennine foothills provide elevation, drainage, and the thermal variation that preserves freshness in the grapes. The Colli di Scandiano e di Canossa DOC, where Azienda Agricola Il Farneto is located, covers the rolling hills around Castellarano south of Reggio Emilia. These soils are a distinctive mix of sandy clay and limestone with significant fossil content — the geological record of ancient marine sedimentation that gives the wines their particular mineral personality.

The region's defining red grape is Lambrusco, not one variety but a family of closely related indigenous grapes including Grasparossa, Sorbara, Salamino, and several others, each producing wines of different character. Lambrusco Grasparossa, grown primarily around Castelvetro in the Modena province, produces the darkest, most tannic, and most structured expressions in the family, with deep colour and a firm acid backbone. Lambrusco fell victim to industrial overproduction and sweetened bulk wines in the 1970s and 1980s, but a sustained recovery since the 1990s has restored the grape's reputation, particularly among producers working with dry, naturally sparkling styles from low-yield biodynamic vineyards.