I’ve been in my Grandfathers’ vineyards since I was born, Antonio used to sell his grapes to the cooperatives and Guerrino used to make his own wine, my desire to have my own vineyard started when I was only fifteen. I remember when on the 1995 every day during the trip from the agricultural school of Bassano del Grappa to home by bus I used to observe my landscapes from the window and dream, like a journey with the imagination. Growing up I learn how the world works and slowly I understand in which side I want to stand.
I graduated in Sociological Sciences in the University of Padua and I used to do many jobs in the meantime, often related to the nature and the agriculture. During that days of studying I dedicated myself for the fighting of rights and against oppression, but above all on my focus was and still is the defence of the environment. Inspired by the revolutionary way in which the Zapatistas in the Mexican southeast act, I’ve understand that my purpose is to create a break on the wall of the sick world in which I live, that would be just one of the many breaks needed to knock it down.
“The land belongs to those who work, we live in a world made of other worlds,
we need to ask questions while we are walking …”
Finally, my dreams started to become real. In January 2012 I opened my company with the consistent help and support of my Dad Gianfranco and my Mom Graziella. I knew right away that making wine following the conventional viticulture rules does not belong to me: both as regards cultivation and winemaking, and mostly because of the choices of varieties I’ve choose to cultivate. At the beginning I have been very lucky to manage a very old vineyard made up of native vines and then start the “Rarefratte” project. I started to collect so many useful information, asked questions, and listened the tales of the old farmers of Breganze who lived around there. I decided to begin a long project of recovering the ancient varieties of vines cultivated in the Alto Vicentino area. We discover that some of these phonotypes risk the occurrence and with them the risk of losing ancient tastes and perfumes also. With patience, carefully I have started looking among the neighbours’ vegetable gardens, small vineyard and rows in the way to select the oldest variety; propagate them and create new vineyards with the saved phenotypes.
In the meantime, I started making pure micro-vinifications of these varieties to understand their organoleptic characteristics. I travelled around Italy, France, and Spain to visit the most varied wine-growing areas that enriched me with ideas and useful insights for my business. I am proud to know extraordinary people to whom I owe a lot and whom I thank otherwise this dream would never become true. I would like to thank Enrico Azzolin of Osteria La Ciacola without whom all this would never have been possible.
During this journey I find my love, her name is Arianna and she literally has eyes full of life; she accompanies me and enriches the company significantly.
In 2018 I began the construction of the cellar through the restoration of a shelter for agricultural machines and tools and, finally, he started with the production of our wines.
It took me about six or seven years to arrive at the realization of Rarefratte, always asking while I was walking at the pace of the slowest and following an artisanal way to make wine and pursuing the art of knowing how to wait.