Grignolino

Silvio Morando is a five-generation family estate in Vignale Monferrato — the heartland of Grignolino cultivation in Piedmont. The family began converting to certified organic farming in the late 1990s, receiving full certification in 1997, and has farmed 15 hectares of Grignolino, Barbera, and Bonarda on calcareous-clay and marl soils at 750 feet above sea level ever since. Silvio has earned the nickname 'The Wizard of Grignolino' for his ability to coax complexity and charm from this notoriously finicky, multi-seeded variety that most Piedmontese producers have abandoned. Hand-harvested, spontaneous fermentation with native yeasts, aged in stainless steel and cement. Unfined, unfiltered. Today, Silvio and his wife Tiziana are the only winery left in their part of Vignale Monferrato — guardians of a grape and a place.