From tending the vines through to the vinification process, Francesco Brigatti makes craft wines to the highest standards.
The history of Brigatti’s estate began in the early 1900s when Alessandro Brigatti, Francesco’s grandfather, the current proprietor, started to plant some vines to complement the cultivation of cereals.
A great passion for wine drove Alessandro to search for a suitable plot of land to plant his own vineyard. During his quest he came across a gently rolling hill, exposed to the south and with a soil rich in clay. “Love at first sight”, that’s what it was! He definitely showed a keen eye as that spot is one of the best hills in the area, also known as MötZiflon.
In such an idyllic place, Alessandro began to cultivate Nebbiolo, Vespolina and Uva Rara, undeniably the three most representative red grape varietals of the Colline Novaresi, the hills in the Novara province where those grapes are blended to make Mötziflon, the wine named after the vineyard.
Driven by a strong passion for viticulture, Luciano, Alessandro’s son, gets at the helm of the estate at the end of the 50’s, leaving his job as accountant and investing every penny in the vineyard and the winery.
From there, he expanded the vineyards, changed the vine training systems and introduced the innovative practice of green harvesting to select grapes and increase quality. Luciano also developed techniques to age and bottling wine.
Since 1995 the Brigatti’s estate is run by Francesco, Luciano’s son, with a qualification as oenologist and agronomist. He has chosen to strictly maintain a family-run sized business so as to continue to pursue high quality standards.
Today Francesco Brigatti is proprietor of 15 acres of vineyard to which he applies the Integrated Pest Management criteria as a key part of his vision of a sustainable agriculture. Overall annual production stands at 30,000 bottles.
Vineyards
Today, the estate's vineyards stretch over three different hills a.k.a. möt in their local dialect: the MötZiflon, the Mötfrei and the Campazzi, all different by their exposure and the soil composition.
- Mötziflon is south-west facing with a predominance of clay component.
- Mötfrei has a southern exposure with red sandy-loamed soil.
- Campazzi is more westerly exposed and lies on a looser soil as it contains a higher percentage of sand.
The vineyards are tended according to the strict criteria of the Integrated Pest Management, which implies that every action must be driven by the utmost respect for the environment: the lawn is controlled by mowing it with mechanical means only and by completely excluding the use of chemicals.
