Cascina Barbàn

Cascina Barbàn is an attempt, a collective. A peasant project of two families.

A stone village of 1700 abandoned for half a century, located on a plateau in the upper Val Borbera, sheltered from the north winds and heavily exposed to the sun.

Cascina Barbàn is a testimony of rebirth, of a village, of a territory of an apparently distant, peasant world. A non-industrial project, which has more to do with moons and people than with machines and automatisms.

We naturally grow grapes, vegetables, wheat and fruit. Natural in the sense that we never use synthetic chemistry. Green manure, manure, copper and sulfur as well as infusions and decoctions, are the ingredients that we use in our fields. We research and cultivate old varieties because they have seen more springs than the others and in our parts, in the Apennines, they perform better, grow healthier and more vigorous.

We have recovered the last historical vineyards of the Val Borbera, in the territory of Figino, Albera Ligure. We did it because they are the last ones after them
only modernity. We believe that in this historical period practicing recovery and investing in memory is fundamental to try to build a future
best. They are 50, 60, maybe some even 70 years old. Inside there is a long series of varieties, some indigenous, others allochthonous and together with Stefano Raimondi,
ampelograph of the CNR we have recorded them all: from Nibieau to Uva Rara, from Timorasso to Muscat of Hamburg, from Barbera to Sangiovese, in short, one
large carousel, a circus of biodiversity, practically a miracle of our times.
We talked and drank together with some farmers that these vines planted them by hand, in winter, when it did not snow, because we believe that if you want to try to go ahead, in any path or project, you must understand and enhance what has been done good before our arrival.
The biodiversity in these small places is expressed with all its great strength and we vinify it all together, at the same time, in a single barrel.

Low technology, long maceration on skins and lees, red vinification.
We make wine like this.