Castello Conti

The Conti castle, with its crenellation straight out of a children’s fairy tale, was created by Ermanno Conti in 1963. Today, the winery is run by two of his three daughters, Elena in the vineyard and winery, and Paola, who welcomes guests in the tasting room and runs the shop. The inspiration for their work is undoubtedly the approach of their father.

“The artist Mauro Maulini had a saying: ‘I don’t work, I dream’ – and that is how we work. Our father dreamt of a castle, and built one,” says Paola.

Ermanno believed in working as much as possible in the vineyard and as little as possible in the winery. The idea was to make sure that you harvested only perfect, healthy grapes, and after that, the fermentation would take care of itself. Elena’s wider philosophy is to express the region as well as possible and to respect the earth (she stopped using the chemicals in the vineyard used by an earlier generation) while using simple technologies where appropriate.

Castello Conti

After studying the History of Art and having worked for a time in Milan, Elena decided to follow in her father’s footsteps and work with the land. Another important guide and collaborator has been Gianni Moggio, who describes himself as an ‘adopted brother’. They share a similar vision of respect for the land and the work of the farmer. Gianni is an expert pruner but believes in sharing technical insight in the vineyard with companionship along the way.

The company owns three hectares of vines across seven vineyards, all situated around the commune of Maggiora. However, this does not begin to express how difficult some of these vineyards are to reach or to work. Most of the steep hillsides are covered in woods with little patches of vineyard scattered in the middle of the trees. One of the vineyards can only be reached by crossing a brook, which, of course, can be treacherous when there is heavy rainfall. Another vineyard came to her as the result of an old neighbour, ‘Carletto’, asking her to maintain it in exchange for the fruit, as he was so impressed by her work.

“When he was in a retirement home he would ask me if the vineyard was okay, he wanted to see pictures to see how it was doing,” Elena shares.

Only on his passing did she learn that the patch of vines had been gifted to her in his will.

All of the vineyards have to be protected by high fences against deer, badgers and wild boar. Further challenges include birds, hail and excessive rain.

“These problems help us to think differently,” suggests Elena. “It is stressful, as every moment we have to adjust, but it allows us to evolve and stay open-minded.”

As the soils are so poor, Elena has to work hard to improve them with cover crops (including using the roots of horseradish to break up the soil pan) and by adding humus to increase the fertility of the soils.

In addition to Nebbiolo, a range of local varieties are grown, including the white grapes, Erbaluce (the white variety typical of the area), Baratuciat (increasingly being trialled by adventurous producers) and a local variety known simply as Malvasia di Boca.

The Boca DOC at Castello Conti is a blend of Nebbiolo (80%), Vespolina (15%), and Uva Rara (5%). The fruit comes from two vineyards, Motto and Cappello. It is fermented in wood, with ambient yeast, for one month without any temperature control unless it rises above 27º C. After fermentation, the wine spends three years in wood and a year in a bottle before being released.