Common traits overshadow the differences. The farms we work with value character, nature, and truth. They work land with knowledge from tradition and decision-making filtered through 1,000s of hours among their vines, learning up close.

Our portfolio strives to be deep, not broad. The variations that abound in wines produced by hand between one farmer and the next are key to our learning process and are a big part of where the fun is in this endeavor.

We share an emotional, at times irrational bond with these people and their wines. We care about their success, and see value in who they are and what they do. But mostly it’s in the bottle: our love comes from the wine, the same experience you have tasting the wines. So maybe your feelings will be close to the same.


Northern Italy


Piedmont, Italy

Who: Giuseppina Vallana and her children Marina, Miriam and Francis

Where: Maggiora, Novara, Alto Piemonte

What grapes: Spanna (Nebbiolo) Vespolina, Barbera

How many bottles: 50,000

Key facts: The Vallana family name first shows up in connection to winemaking in Alto Piemonte in 1787. Five generations of the family have made wine at the present estate.

Daniele Saccoletto

Piedmont, Italy

Who: Daniele Saccoletto does it all.

Where: San Giorgio Monferrato, close to Casale, Piemonte

What grapes: Grignolino, Barbera, Freisa, Nebbiolo, Syrah

How many bottles: 20,000

Key facts: Certified organic by ecocert Italy since 2004, certified organic grapes since 2000. Low sulfur (40mg/l roughly). Also no enzymes, added yeasts, no animal gelatin, harvest in 3 successive passes in 14kg baskets.

La Casaccia

Piedmont, Italy

Who: Giovanni Rava, his wife Elena, daughter Margherita and son Marcello

Where: Cella Monte, just south of the Po River, in Piemonte.

What grapes: Barbera, Grignolino, Freisa, Chardonnay, Pinot Nero

How many bottles: 30,000

Key facts: Certified organic. The underground cellar of this estate is entirely carved into sedimentary “Pietra da Cantoni” stone, which you see above ground in all of Cella Monte’s buildings.



Piedmont, Italy

Who: Renata Bonacina

Where: Agliano Terme

What grapes: Barbera, Ruche, Pinot Noir, Nebbiolo, Grignolino, Chardonnay (for sparkling wine)

How many bottles: 50,000

Key facts: Organic. Da capo means from the top. This certified organic and certified vegan estate uses two farms to grow outstanding indigenous grapes.


Piedmont, Italy

Who: Bruna Ferro and her sons Matteo and Luca

Where: San Marzano Oliveto, Piemonte. South of Asti, north of Canelli

What grapes: Barbera, Carica l’Asino, Dolcetto, Grignolino, Nebbiolo, Moscato

How many bottles: 100,000

Key facts: Certified-organic, with biodynamic tendencies. They make beer. They have donkeys.

Cascina Barisel

Piedmont, Italy

Who: Franco Penna

Where: Canelli

What grapes: Dolcetto, Barbera, Favorita, Moscato

How many bottles: 35,000

Key facts: No chemical fertilizers or insecticides are used on this five-hectare family estate. A south facing three-hectare calcium-rich monopole sits immediately behind his cellar and is the source of most of Barisel’s grapes.


Borgo Moncalvo

Piedmont, Italy

Who: Andrea and Luca Elegir, and their parents

Where: Loazzolo, possibly the smallest DOC in Italy, south of Canelli in Piemonte

What grapes: Moscato, Brachetto, Barbera, Dolcetto, Pinot Noir, Cortese

How many bottles: 20,000

Key facts: Borgo Moncalvo power their estate entirely with solar panels, and use solar energy for their hot water. Many of their vines were planted in the 1920’s.


Piedmont, Italy

Who: Chiara Penati and Michele Conoscente

Where: Paderna, near Tortona, Piedmont

What grapes: Timorasso, Cortese, Barbera, Dolcetto

How many bottles: 15,000

Key facts: A young wine-obsessed couple from Milan and their two kids are starting a new organic farm in sleepy Paderna. So far the results are really exciting!


Veneto, Italy

Who: Daniele and Camilla Piccinin

Where: Lessinia, Verona

What grapes: Durella, Corvina, Molinara, Rondinella, Cabernet, Merlot, Pinot Nero

How many bottles: 12,000

Key facts: Daniele is a former chef who makes lively, engaging wine using natural methods. This estate specializes in Durella, a very local white grape.


Tenuta l'Armonia

Veneto, Italy

Who: Andrea Pendin

Where: Montecchio Maggiore, Vicenza

What grapes: Barbera, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Durella, Carmenere

How many bottles: 9,000

Key facts: Andrea Pendin is a trained chef with a passion for natural wine who is three years down the path to making great wine in the hills of Vicenza.

Tenuta Degli Ultimi

Veneto, Italy

Who: Sebastiano Ricci, his mother Giulia and brother Martino.

Where: Conegliano, Treviso

What grapes: Glera (Prosecco), Merlot

How many bottles: ± 200,000

Key facts: Alpine glacier water seeps out of the rocks and provides natural irrigation to these vineyards in the hills just outside Conegliano

Casa Belfi

Veneto, Italy

Who: Maurizio Donati

Where: San Polo di Piave, Treviso, Veneto

What grapes: Glera

How many bottles:

Key facts: This certified-organic Prosecco finishes its alcoholic fermentation in bottle (under a crown cap!) which creates a wine that is at once rich and bone dry.


Alla Costiera

Veneto, Italy

Who: Filippo Gamba

Where: Vo’ Euganeo, Padova

What grapes: Friulano, Moscato Giallo, Garganega, Serprino, Raboso

How many bottles: ± 30,000

Key facts: Filippo does it all by himself; 7ha of certified organic farm


Alto Adige, Italy

Who: Andreas Berger

Where: Bolzano, Bozen, South Tyrol, Italy

What grapes:

How many bottles: 10,000

Key facts: This is a 3.5 hectare, 6th-generation family estate farming high mountain vines outside Bolzano.


Friuli Venezia-Giulia, Italy

Who: Andrea Visintini, Cinzia, Palmira and Oliviero

Where: Corno di Rosazzo, Udine, Friuli Venezia-Giulia

What grapes: Friulano, Ribolla Gialla, Picolit, Franconia, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, and more

How many bottles: ± 150,000

Key facts: This estate, once the location for the Castle of Gramogliano, has been in the family since 1884



Friuli Venezia-Giulia, Italy

Who: Franco and Daniella Terpin

Where: San Floriano del Collio, Gorizia, Friuli Venezia-Giulia

What grapes: Friulano, Pinot Grigio…..

How many bottles: 25,000

Key facts: This natural estate uses long macerations and aging to produce wild, colorful, textural white wines.


Friuli Venezia-Giulia, Italy

Who: Giorgio and Rossana Nicolini

Where: Istria

What grapes: Malvasia, Borgogna Nera, Piccola Nera, Vitovska

How many bottles: 5,000

Key facts: This is the smallest estate we import. Two hectares (one planted,) no outside workers, land inherited from grandparents. Fidelity to old methods and indigenous grapes is the guiding principle at Nicolini.


Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Who: Amilcare Alberici, his daughter Arianna, cousin Giuseppe Caleffi

Where: Boretto, Po Valley, Reggio Emilia

What grapes: Lambrusco Salomino, Ancellota, Lambrusco di Fogarina, Nostrano

How many bottles: 10,000

Key facts: Lambrusco di Fogarina is a traditional grape saved from extinction by the work of this estate.


Central & Southern Italy

Fattoria Castellina

Tuscany, Italy

Who: Elisabetta and Eleonora Montomoli, winemaker Ivan Chirico

Where: Capraia e Limite, Chianti Montalbano

What grapes: Primarily Sangiovese, with Vermentino and small amounts of French Grapes

How many bottles: 30,000 total production

Key facts: This certified-organic (by IMC) winery uses biodynamic methods including plowing with a horse, and farm fields planted in the old albarello trellising method.

Corzano e Paterno

Tuscany, Italy

Who: Ajioscha Goldschmidt and his cousin Arianna. Also family members Sibilla (cheese shop) Antonia (dairy) Oscar (dairy)

Where: Frazione San Pancrazio, north of Poggibonsi, west of Greve, in Tuscany

What grapes: Sangiovese, Canaiolo, Cabernet, a little Merlot, Trebbiano, Malvasia, Semillon,Petit Manseng, Chardonnay

How many bottles: 85,000

Key facts: This 40-year-old working family farm makes unpasteurized sheep’s milk cheese, olive oil and wine from fields they own on two sides of a valley. The place is an inspiring integration of man and nature.


Tuscany, Italy

Who: Pierfranca Lattuada, her son, plus Luciano Bandini in the cellar and Elio Galardi in the fields, both part-time.

Where: Gambassi Terme, close to San Gimignano in Southwestern Tuscany

What grapes: Sangiovese, Trebbiano, Malvasia, Canaiolo, Colorino

How many bottles: 15,000

Key facts: Of 37 hectares total, only 5ha are vineyard and 1ha olive grove; the rest is left to nature. Pietralta have a sustainable, integrated approach to farming. The cellar is in a renovated 13th century building.



Tuscany, Italy

Who: Paolo Cianferoni

Where: Radda in Chianti, heart of Tuscany

What grapes: Sangiovese, Colorino, Canaiolo, Trebbiano, Malvasia

How many bottles: 20,000

Key facts: This certified-organic (by CCPB) one-man estate makes compelling wine from old vines in the heart of Chianti Classico, with very little manipulation or modern technology.


Tuscany, Italy

Who: Riccardo Lanza

Where: Radda in Chianti, on the road to Volpaia, Tuscany

What grapes: Sangiovese

How many bottles: 13,000

Key facts: One person. Two fields. 3.5 hectares. Two wines (Chianti Classico and Riserva.) 32 years of labor and dedication.

Lidia e Amato

Abruzzo, Italy

Who: Lidia and Amato Tavoletti

Where: Controguerra, Abruzzo

What grapes: Montepulciano, Trebbiano, Pecorino, Passerina

How many bottles: 50,000

Key facts: This is a multi-generational organic 12-hectare farm practicing polyculture on slopes wedged between the Apenines and the Adriatic Sea.



Abruzzo, Italy

Who: Lamberto Vannuci

Where: Casole di Atri, Abruzzo

What grapes: Trebbiano, Montepulciano, Pecorino

How many bottles:

Key facts: This 12-hectare organic estate uses massive solar panel towers to create all its energy needs, and more.

Torre dei Beati

Abruzzo, Italy

Who: Fausto Albanesi

Where: Loreto Aprutino, Abruzzo

What grapes: Montepulciano, Trebbiano, Pecorino

How many bottles: 100,000

Key facts: This certified-organic family owned and operated estate grows indigenous Abruzzese grapes.

Cantina Morone

Campania, Italy



What grapes:

How many bottles:

Key facts:


Paolo Petrilli

Puglia, Italy

Who: Paolo Petrilli

Where: Lucera, Puglia

What grapes: Nero d'Troia, Aglianico, Montepulciano, Sangiovese

How many bottles: 25,000

Key facts: This certified organic wine and tomato estate is a great place to discover the character of Nero d'Troia.


Puglia, Italy

Who: Mariangela Plantamura

Where: Gioia del Colle

What grapes: Primitivo

How many bottles: 50,000

Key facts: A certified organic small family farm working with old vines.

i Pastini

Puglia, Italy

Who: Lino Carparelli

Where: Locorotondo, Puglia

What grapes: Verdeca, Bianco d'Alessano, Fiano Minutolo

How many bottles:

Key facts: This family farm in central Puglia is making some of the best whites in the region today.



Puglia, Italy

Who: Lisa Gilbee

Where: Manduria, Puglia

What grapes: Primitivo, Negroamaro, Fiano, small amounts of Petite Verdot, Cabernet, Malbec

How many bottles:

Key facts: This biodynamic estate is farming very old bush vine Primitivo in an effort to preserve and grow interest in a disappearing form of local agriculture.


Germany & Austria

Hofgut Falkenstein

Mosel, Germany

Who: Erich Weber and his son Johannes

Where: Konz Niedermennig, Germany

What grapes: Riesling, Spätburgunder, Weissburgunder

How many bottles:

Key facts: the Saar-Mosel-Ruwer region once had many productive vineyards. Erich Weber is working hard to bring some of them back to life.


Weinviertel, Austria

Who: Martin and Blandine Minkowitsch

Where: Mannersdorf, Weinviertel

What grapes: Gruner Veltliner

How many bottles: 40,000

Key facts: