Pietro Giuseppe Arditi
known as "Giuspin"

Early 1900s: in Cellamonte, an elegant town on the Monferrato hills,
Pietro Giuseppe Arditi (known as Giuspin) lived with his family, comprised of a brother and four sisters, each of whom was in search of their own path in life.

Pietro, for example, was very attracted to the world of wine, to the point of starting to rent some vines on the surrounding hills: the grapes produced were good, and he knew how to make a special wine.

However, there was an estate near his home, called Valpane, that had always fascinated him: well exposed, it dominated the valley with the size of the large villa and a slender tower with a clock, the chimes of which marked the time for all those (and at the time they were many) who did not own a personal watch. The slopes well exposed to the sun and the calcareous clay soil were ideal for producing excellent grapes; in fact, the Valpane wines were exported to Belgium and Switzerland and in 1898 they won the gold medal at the international exhibition of Dijon and Bordeaux and the silver one in Hamburg and Rome.

Unfortunately, in recent times the Valpane estate seemed neglected, because its owners, the Fojadelli’s, could no longer take care of it as they once did, having reached a certain age. It was then that Pietro Giuspin Arditi decided to ask to rent some of those lands.

He left his house in Cellamonte dressed in his best suit, and we can imagine him walking through the valley, repeating to himself the words with which he would present his request.

The elderly owner received him, he listened for a while to his proposal and his plans, but in the end, he abruptly rejected: the Fojadelli’s were not interested in renting their land, not to him nor anyone else.

Pietro saw all his plans and dreams collapse in an instant: he took leave from Fojadelli and as soon as he got to the courtyard of the villa, he burst into tears. He thought he was alone, but an old maid of the Fojadelli house saw him crying from a window on the first floor. Imagining that something had gone wrong, she ran to her master, with whom she had a certain trust, and asked him what had happened: why had he sent away so badly that young man, known to all as a great chap, a great worker and a good person? Did he know that everyone in the village respected him for how he managed the vineyards he rented and the wines he produced?

Old Fojadelli was struck by what the woman was telling him, and in the end asked the maid to run after Pietro and to invite him to come back: he would lease him the vineyards he had asked for.

It was the beginning of a new chapter in the history of the Valpane estate.

”Pills from my kitchen and wine from my cellar”

Having worked hard, in 1902 Pietro managed to buy the estate; he planted new vineyards and renewed the older ones, while continuing to produce excellent wine. He never drew back when faced with struggle, but he also knew how to enjoy life; in fact, he married Teresa, a beautiful tall, thin girl, 15 years younger than him, and almost every evening he would go to Cellamonte, by foot or by carriage, to play cards with friends. He was even famous for his skill in dancing the waltz. He was strict with those who worked for him, but also very generous. During the terrible crisis of 1929, a great number of people went to look for work from him, so as not to suffer hunger, and Pietro did not send anyone away; since then, his fellow villagers cherished him even more. At 88 he still went to work in his vineyards and to those who asked him what medicine allowed him to be so active and bright, he replied: "Pills from my kitchen and wine from my cellar".

He died at 92 years of age, in a very snowy February; the whole town attended his funeral. Despite the frost and the snow, in fact, the church and the square in front of it were packed with people, because everyone wanted to pay the last farewell to who had been able to do so much good for others.

Lydia Arditi

Lydia was the eldest daughter of Pietro Giuseppe: like her brother and sister, as a child she was sent to study at boarding school, where she proved to be a very bright student, especially in mathematics. For this reason, her teacher was very upset and tried to oppose her parent’s decision to end her studies: it was a pity that such a talent go to waste. But at home they needed her, and Lydia was forced to leave school to go back to help her mother look after the family and take care of her elderly grandmother.

Lydia obeyed the wishes of her parents, but she was not very inclined for household chores, and she didn't like cooking. She preferred following her father, not only in the vineyards, but also in the cellar, to the Casale market and in negotiations with the merchants.

Growing up, she became a beautiful woman, autonomous and determined: she dismissed (with a letter!) a very wealthy boyfriend, but in her opinion too dependent on his family, and she was the first woman in the area to get a license. Her car was a "Topolino", Fiat's first car.

As the years passed, she supported her father more and more: in the end it was she who led the negotiations, the only woman in a world of men, without letting anyone intimidate her, without wasting time on talk, and proving a great commercial intuition. In the fifties of the last century, Lydia Arditi was what today we would call a clever manager.

In the cellar, Lydia was very attached to the tradition passed down by her father. Thanks to her, Valpane wine always maintained the characteristics that had distinguished it from the beginning and that made it loved: great structure and a special bouquet of perfumes.

But she was also open to novelties: she equipped the winery with presses and electric pumps, and to the old wooden barrels she also flanked concrete tanks. She even managed to see the arrival of the computer in the company: she found it very convenient that it automatically put supplier names in alphabetical order!

She lived up to 88 years of age, also citing her father's recipe, "Pills from my kitchen and wine from my cellar", as an elixir of long life. And when she saw that her nephew, named Pietro like his grandfather, was taking over the company reins, she realized that once again the Valpane estate was turning page... and that the story continued.

Pietro Arditi

The story of today's Pietro is that of a passion.

It is not necessary to write about it: you can find it in his wines and... in the videos that enthusiastic friends put on YouTube, like this one made by Gianni Messina (in Italian):

Here in a short interview for Grape Collective:

Each wine tells a story.

First of all, it is the story of its origins, of the place where it was born, of the lands that generated it and of the men who produced it.

They are stories rich in humanity and traditions and it is nice to be seduced by these stories, to be accompanied on an imaginary journey through the lands of wine.

Almost all of Piedmont knows vine and wine. The origin of both dates back to the ancient Romans who spread its culture more than 2000 years ago. Since then wine and vine have accompanied our history.

The soils and the climate proved to be particularly favourable on the gentle hills that from the Po Valley rise towards the Alps, where fertility, the right slope and excellent sun exposure allow low yields of grapes to produce quality wines.

As soon as it is fermented the grapes become wine to be jealously guarded in the vats, while waiting for its ripeness. Here, too, nature requires patience, care and special attention to guard wisely what it has given us.

Once ready and brought to the table each wine claims its individuality, it wants to tell its story! First of all, the paternity of the vine: Nebbiolo, Barbera, Dolcetto, Grignolino, Moscato, Cortese, Arneis are among the most important. Each with strong distinctive characteristics almost never mixed together according to the Piedmontese tradition that prefers the purity (mono-varietal) of the vines.

This is why the main wines bear the names of the grapes themselves, and each vine has its typical area that delimits the most evoked territory. We will talk about the “Barbera area” or “Dolcetto area” or small jewels such as the DOCG areas (Denominazione d'Origine Controllata e Garantita, which stands for Denomination of Controlled and Guaranteed Origin) of Moscato, Barolo, Barbaresco and Gattinara.

These wines naturally also tell us about the winemakers, the men who take care of the vineyard and the transformation of the grapes. Many of them, or their children, have studied oenology, know the techniques and have become skilled entrepreneurs. But all this would be useless if there were not the furrow of tradition and experience that provide us with the reference points on which to evolve with innovation and imagination.

Man, therefore, remains the protagonist of the wine and its making, and the rhythm of the work remains artisanal, conditioned by nature, by weather, by customs and tastes. All this comforts us, due to the fact that wine is never random or trivial. Wine is always the bearer of values of the taste of food culture.

In a word, wine is civilization.

The work involved in taking care of the vineyard is the one closest to nature, the most fascinating one to discover the origins of wine, and to appreciate the labors of those who produce it. It starts towards the end of winter, when the warm sun of February and March melt the snow, and it is possible to proceed with "potatura" (pruning). A "short" pruning that leaves between 8-10 buds will guarantee a limited production, but of better quality.

In the following weeks we pass between the rows to check poles, canes and support wires, and to replace those that broke during the winter.

With the "legatura"(binding) the fruit-bearing branch is folded and tied to the first wire, as a way to confer an orderly development to the future vegetation.

Then, we pass with the tractor between the rows of vines, first for shredding the branches left during pruning, then for fertilizing.

In June the "scacchiatura" takes place, an operation which consists in removing the double shoots from the fruit-bearing branch, so as to balance the production of the plant.

At the beginning of the summer, when the branches begin to be lush, we proceed with the "legatura" (binding): with appropriate string we tie the branches to their support, so that they develop neatly upwards without breaking.

When the shoots exceed their supports in height and tend to fold towards the inside of the row, with the so called "chinatura" (branch bending) we position them along the highest wire, or carry out the "cimatura" (topping), which consists in cutting and throwing to the ground the protruding tips of the shoots, since these do not affect production.

During the summer a second "scacchiatura" is performed in order to give more sun and light to the ripening bunches.

At the same time, grapes must be defended from possible attacks by pests and moulds with appropriate "anticryptogamic" treatments. The main enemies of the vine have strange names like "Peronospora", "Oidium" and "Botrytis" and the winemaker must be careful to identify and neutralize them before they spread. Therefore, he cannot stray far from the vineyards and during the summer he follows with anxiety the maturation, hoping that the always imminent danger of hail won’t occur.

If all goes well, the harvest, which begins around mid-September, is a beautiful celebration that rewards the work of the whole year. The earliest grapes are harvested with the warm late-summer sun, and it ends with the Nebbiolo grapes around mid-October when, as the name suggests, the first autumn mists rise (nebbia = mist).

Even the work in the cellar is regulated by the cycle of the seasons.

Autumn is the most intense moment, because ripe grapes must be pressed the same day as the harvest. Shortly after the yeasts contained in the grapes begin the fermentation of the must, causing the transformation of the sugar into alcohol.

During the fermentation of the must, which lasts on average 5-15 days, the cellar master controls the temperature of the barrels, carries out the "pump overs" (remixing of the must and the skins) and at the end of the fermentation, proceeds with the drawing off, that is to say the separation of the wine from the solid part of the skins (cap/pomace/marc), which with the "pressing" may eventually be distilled into grappa. All these operations keep the winemaker in constant tension, because errors could compromise the work of a year.

During the winter the cellar master proceeds topping the barrels to replace the evaporated wine and avoid contact with the air. Then, he carries out the "rackings", that stands of the movements of the wine from one barrel to another, to remove it from contact with the lees that accumulate at the bottom of the barrel.

Subsequently, the wine will undergo a secondary fermentation, which technical name is "malolactic" fermentation, since it consists of the transformation of malic acid into lactic acid. The winemaker makes sure that this process, for red wines, always takes place before bottling, since it softens the acidity of the taste. On the other hand, with the addition of sulphur dioxide, he ensures that it does not occur in white wines, where acidity is appreciated.

Finally, the wine must be "clarified" to make its colour clear, and eventually "filtered", to clean it of even the most minute impurities.

In spring, young wines are bottled, which do not require further maturation.

However, there are wines destined to a longer aging that must necessarily take place in wooden barrels, because the exchange of oxygen that occurs through the pores of the wood determines a slow oxidation, during which the wine improves both in taste and aromas. The use of different woods thus allows to give specific characteristics to the taste structure of the wine.

Aging in wood can last up to two or three years and is then completed for a few months in the bottle, with a phenomenon called "refinement", since it gives the wine the final touch of desired harmony.

Wines of great structure such as Barolo, Barbaresco and Gattinara, although normally consumed in the first ten years of life, can withstand much longer aging, especially in the best vintages. The cellar master will take care in preserving these precious bottles in a dry environment, with little light and a constant temperature of 12-16 degrees. The same warnings are also valid for collectors, who keeps these wines in their cellar.

The hobby of wine

Thanks to its complexity, its individuality and its aptitude to tell stories of lands and men, wine also involves the end consumer more profoundly than many other products. For some, wine becomes a hobby with which to spend leisure time. Let's think, for example, of the tradition of making wine at home: it requires a special space and a reasonable investment of money to buy the grapes, a small crushing machine, a few wine vats for fermentation and storage, and finally a corking machine.

This hobby also requires a certain amount of time, both to carry out all the stages of winemaking and to follow the evolution of the wine every day, and also to prevent and correct any alterations to the wine. Grapes that are not perfectly healthy or wine-making errors can lead to defects such as unpleasant odours, cloudiness, acidification or precipitation of chemical substances in the form of solid deposits.

To avoid all these problems, it may be easier to buy an already made wine, take it home in bulk containers like the typical damigiane, and dedicate your time to the hobby of bottling.

Even the purchase of wine in damigiane is a typical Piedmontese tradition: it requires only a small cellar and little equipment. The warning, in this case, will be only those of bottling the wine in the days immediately following the purchase, and of using new or well washed bottles. It is obvious that the wine bottled at home is only for private use and cannot be sold. The practice of private bottling mainly concerns table wines intended for everyday use.

Most of the DOC wines (Denominazione di Origine Controllata, Denomination of Controlled Origin) and of the greater value are commercialised only in bottles. In addition to the convenience of retrieval, transport and storage, the bottle offers legal guarantees through the mandatory data present on the label. For all DOC wines, we know the exact denomination of the wine, the name and address of the bottler, the area of origin, the alcohol content and the vintage.

Very often the producers add non-mandatory but important information such as the name of the vineyard from which the grapes come from (called in French cru) or the quantity of bottles produced.

The consumption of wine in bottles also makes it possible to change types of wines more often, to taste different products from various regions and therefore make interesting comparisons.

The last stop of our journey to discover wine is tasting, that is the direct encounter with the finished product through the perceptions of our senses involved in tasting the wine: sight, smell and taste.

The experience of wine is above all a sensory one, and as such remains partly subjective, linked to expectations and individual predilections.

However, there are very precise reference criteria that can inspire us to make the tasting as objective and reliable as possible. We recommend the choice of a quiet room, well lit, without particular odours and a certain concentration by the taster.

Each wine must be served at the right temperatures: around 12° for white and for sparkling wines; 15-16° for young reds, and 18-20° for aged reds. It is very important that every wine is served in a suitable glass, possibly crystal, since the right glass enhances the wine in all its characteristics. If it is aged wines, it would be best to open the bottle a few hours before serving, and decant the wine in a special carafe, in such a way as to oxygenate it (favouring the release of perfumes) and to eliminate any deposit.

At the beginning of the tasting we first see the colour, placing the glass over a white surface. We observe the clarity, the nature of the colour (for example, straw, or ruby red or garnet red, etc.) and any characteristics such as the effervescence produced by carbon dioxide.

The sense of smell reveals the aromas that are transmitted directly from the grapes, from the aromas that are formed during fermentation and aging (eg fruit aromas, undergrowth, berries etc.).

The taste is revealed in the mouth, by allowing the wine to bubble for a few seconds in contact with the air. This highlights the main taste (the structure of the wine and the sweet, sour or bitter notes with the infinite combinations) and then the "aftertaste", that is the final sensation that the wine leaves before being swallowed. In the general definition of taste, our creativity also intervenes in finding the most appropriate analogies and formulas to express the subjective feelings experienced. Tasting can thus become an interesting and creative game, also made of exchange of opinions with more experienced people and friends. It is necessary to educate our "palate" and become aware drinkers, even without becoming perfect experts.

Wine lovers of good wine can contribute with their awareness to the culture of quality.