The Rivetti family story begins in the 1890s, when Giovanni Rivetti, grandfather of the three Rivetti brothers, Carlo, Bruno and Giorgio, left Piedmont for Argentina. Like many Italians of that time, he dreamed of returning rich and a powerful man, perhaps even one day able to make a great wine in his homeland.

He never did, though his son, Giuseppe (nicknamed Pin) did. Pin married Lidia, bought vineyards and began to make wine. In 1977 the family took up residence at LA SPINETTA (top of the hill) in Castagnole Lanze. It was the heart of the Moscato d'Asti country, home of a rather light and simple dessert wine. But the Rivettis believed that Moscato had the potential for greatness and set out to prove it by making Moscato Bricco Quaglia and Biancospino.

Eventually though the family's vision was even grander. In 1985 LA SPINETTA made its first red wine, Barbera Cà di Pian. After this many great reds followed: In 1989 the Rivettis dedicated their red blend Pin to their father. In 1995 they started to make their first Barbaresco, Gallina. In 1996 and 1997 the Barbarescos Starderi, Barbera d'Alba Gallina and Barbaresco Valeirano follow. In 1998 premiered the Barbera d'Asti Superiore.

In 2000 the family's ambition of also making a Barolo became reality. The Rivettis acquired vineyards in Grinzane Cavour and built a state of the art cellar, Barolo Campè. Since 2003 visitors are welcomed to visit also Campè, outside the town, Grinzane Cavour.

In 2001 LA SPINETTA expanded over the borders of Piedmont and acquired 65 hectares of vineyards in Tuscany, between Pisa and Volterra to make three different 100% Sangiovese wines, as Sangiovese to La Spinetta, is the true ambassador of the Tuscan terrain.

The work at LA SPINETTA is dedicated to the vineyards, which we treat with the utmost care, attention and respect, especially in regards to agronomy and production quantities. By using no or the least possible amount of chemicals and by keeping our production relatively small (only 17-20 hl (1.7 -2 tons) per hectare), we put 90% of our effort into our vineyards. We are aware that the vineyards have long existed before LA SPINETTA has begun to make wine and they will survive us.

Not having inherited our land through generations of winemakers, our vineyards were carefully selected. All of our vineyards have south, south-east or south-west exposure and the vines are mostly of old age (35-65 years). Only vines of substantial age are able to give mineralogy, longevity, complexity and terrain character to the wine. Vines of younger age, we only use to make three wines: Barbera Cà di Pian, Langhe Nebbiolo and Il Nero di Casanova.

In the vineyard:

extensive year round care
extremely low yields
no use of chemical products
no fertilizing
no pesticides
75% bio-dynamic

"We believe in grape origin, planting, growing and cultivating only indigenous grape varieties ."

Piedmont is famous for its red grapes such as Barbera, Nebbiolo, Dolcetto and Moscato, that have a long history and are indigenous for our region. We prefer to make wines that are typical of Piedmont, typical for the terrain they grow on, reflecting a taste unquestionably identifiable with the land, they origin from.

Our philosophy is to take one step back, away from a globalization of character and taste, back to the roots and the history of our land.

Our grapes are Barbera, Nebbiolo, Moscato in Piedmont and Sangiovese and Colorino at our Tuscan Estate...

Up to three times every Summer, between the beginning of July and the beginning of August we cut the still green grapes to reduce production quantity and to maximize quality. This practice is called Green Harvest and requires great skills, since the grape quantity needs to be reduced to an optimal level, judging past and future weather and vintage conditions.

Producing only small quantities, yields of 2,500 bottles per hectare is the only mode of transmitting the characteristics and identity of the terrain and of achieving great quality and resulting into high concentration of grape juice, sugar and fruit.

Generally we start the harvest with our white varieties at the beginning of September: Moscato, Chardonnay and Sauvignon. At the end of September beginning of October we harvest Barbera and then, middle of October, followed by Nebbiolo.

The perfect moment to harvest each vineyard is determined by the ripeness of the grape, the sugar and acidity content and the weather conditions. Generally LA SPINETTA starts to harvest a week or two before most other wine producers in the area, since an extensive green harvest in the Summer will support a faster ripening process of the fruit.

To harvest, we use small caskets. All of our grapes are hand picked. This manual process needs great attention from the moment the fruit is picked to the moment it is crushed.

A wine should reflect the magic and the respect of a terrain and not the hand of a winemaker. We do not make a Giorgio Rivetti wine, we make a wine of the vineyard, a wine called Gallina, Starderi, Valeirano, Sezzana, Sassontino... Our work in the cellar also reflects this philosophy.

However by using state of the art technology and a majority of new oak we realize 100% hygiene, a factor that is very important to us.

80% use of new, medium toast French barrique
temperature and humidity controlled facilities
modern technologies support an error free process
rotofermenters for first fermentation
impeccably clean cellar environment
no filtration
no clarifying by adding substances
most modern bottling technology
use of natural cork only
constant quality control