The ... "Doria Montalto"!

 I Doria di Montalto… non so, ma detto così mi sembra quasi di raccontare la storia di una famiglia medioevale… di castelli, di sfide e di duelli!

E qui scatta la molla… Si, perché dovete sapere che amo molto la storia, and in particular I love everything that has a lived experience to tell. When I see antiques in my wanderings it is as if I were magnetized, and if anyone is with me hear me say: "Wait a minute I have to look ..." Not for nothing at home I surround myself with old books, candelabra, I read, spade, sabers and knives. Then when I enter the historic houses the matter gets really serious. It is as if you were experiencing a dejà vu , as if I were going home ... I only know that one day when you come in, come on Doria Montalto that atmosphere enveloped me ...

You should know that the Doria winery started its business in 1800. Pietro Doria, telegraph operator during the Second World War and survived the extermination of the Acqui Division in Kefalonia, once he returned from captivity he gave new impetus to the business. They followed him until 1996, the sons Bruno and Adriano. After that the reins passed into the hands of Andrew and David,  led by their mother Giuseppina Sassella Doria.

I decided to arrange a meeting for a visit. I was late as usual ... Despite my best efforts I can never be on time! Along the way, the landscapes caught my attention in particular, enough to stop and get out of the car to fully enjoy the beauty.

As Luigi Veronelli said in an article in the Corriere del 2003: “It is a territory which must be discovered slowly, and not only for the wine vocation ... "

At the entrance, dear Daniele Manini met me, agronomist of the company, with whom I spent an entire afternoon talking. The thought still amuses me, because Mario Maffi well known winemaker in Oltrepò Pavese, he had announced that it would be a good fight between the two of us ... Yes, fight who talked the most! Well I called him at the end of the evening, I had won!

You must know that Daniele had started his career as a pilot in aeronautics. It was a vision problem that stopped him, and that forced him to question his life. It was then that he turned to the Faculty of Agriculture of Viterbo, which soon led him to start his happy collaboration with the Doria family. He is a great supporter of the recovery of historical vines and cellar techniques to be sought in the history and traditions of the territory. It is also defined as the following figure, to quote his own words,  "The branch cattle-uva-come",  the Cellar Master. And it is precisely this thought of his that led him to give continuity to the tradition of the Cantina Doria. With him the “historical” Barbera raised in Italian chestnut barrels was made.  And this experimentation of his has led a famous “French tonnellerie” to take an interest, enough to entrust to some teachers the evaluation of the results that will obtain.

I look at my hills and often sip their wine so as not to doubt my teachers ... I look at the Pavia hills each time, moved, that are my sweet horizon of vine leaves. The Po land undulates like an immense sea fringed in profiles familiar to me from childhood. The waves are intense green, and gradually they become light blue violets until they become confused, with the sky ...

Giovanni Luigi Brera, the Gioânn, born on 8 September 1919 and San Zenone Po (Pv)