History

Two brothers born in Milan to a mother from Piacenza, hailing from the village of Vigolzone, and a father from Milan. Destined by their own will to follow father's footsteps, i.e. to pursue the medical profession. No trace of passion for it, only the hope, having started studying medicine, that this passion would arise sooner or later. Instead, Stefano begins to develop a passion for wine from the age of seventeen, and his participation in the first tasting courses, with the Italian Sommelier Association, just turned eighteen in 1978, in a still infantile era for wine culture in Italy.

Subsequently, years during which attending all levels of courses, purchasing and tasting wines, visiting companies, studying aromas were his daily bread. In the meantime, in the mid-seventies, the purchase of a house to spend holidays in the hills, in the municipality of origin of the maternal family strain. Ferruccio’s passion for country life lived there during the weekends and the lack of familiarity with the town. The purchase, in 1980, of two plots of land bordering the house, one of which contained an old farmhouse called La Tosa, which were for sale at that time, with the desire, cherished by the whole family, to have a farm to follow as a hobby.

The planting of the vineyards, which had been present in those lands until the sixties, and the care of them during the weekends, with the help of a neighboring farmer. Finally, in 1984, almost overnight, the decision by Stefano and Ferruccio to turn the hobby into a profession, and therefore to devote themselves full time to the work of winemakers. The definitive transfer to La Tosa, Stefano’s immediate enrollment at the Agricultural University of Piacenza, the start of the renovation of the old farmhouse and the subsequent construction of the cellar.

In 1985, the production of the first wine: a thousand bottles of Gutturnio, so few also because of a heavy hailstorm that year had mowed down the vast majority of the grapes.

After the death of Stefano and Ferruccio’s father, at the beginning of 1987, with building works not yet completed, their commitment intensifies, in a land then almost exclusively devoted to the production of light and sparkling wines, to explore what they believed to be the true vocation of their micro-territory, to give deeper and more concentrated wines, almost exclusively still wines, and their process of learning about the territory itself and the wine world in general accelerates. In 1988, therefore, Stefano spends a year in Franciacorta, at the Cà del Bosco of the Zanella family, to work and learn: thanks also to this, for the first time in the province of Piacenza, La Tosa from that year uses techniques such as thinning of the bunches and other forms of green treatments.

Subsequently, for several years, Stefano gained extensive experience in France (Bordeaux, Alsace, Loire, Burgundy, Languedoc, Provence), visiting wineries and attending advanced courses at the University of Bordeaux and INRA Montpellier. Above all, he accumulated significant experience in vineyards and the cellar of La Tosa, conducting numerous trials and research. Amidst errors, course corrections, and a focus on defining the identity of the region, its objectives, and a unifying style. He spent nearly three decades working to promote the wines and the territory. Many individuals, including journalists, restaurateurs, wine merchants, and enthusiasts, contributed to spreading the name of La Tosa.

The summary of our story is this: a pure passion turned into a profession, nurtured and fueled by that very passion. A story that continues with the same spirit as the first harvest.

The thought

For us, producing wine is not merely a creative act, but an interpretive one. Its soul and characteristics are already written in nature's book, with each page representing a piece of its territory. It is our task to flip through those pages until we find the right one, then translate it, and finally interpret it. However, we do so without preconceived notions of how we want that wine to be; we refrain from altering its essence. It's akin to raising a child: nurturing them so they acquire all the tools to express themselves based on their personality, aptitudes, and character—not according to the parent's personality.

This philosophy influences all our production choices. Therefore, each grape variety is cultivated differently, based on its unique characteristics: Sauvignon, being a northern grape variety, is cultivated to protect its clusters from heat and light, Malvasia, being a Mediterranean grape variety, benefits from direct berry exposure to sunlight and warmth. And equally, each wine is vinified differently by us: the Vignamorello, physically exuberant son and rich in color but not excessively tannic due to the Barbera, undergoes a brief wooden passage, mostly intended as spice intake. Meanwhile, the Luna Selvatica, a more studious offspring by virtue of its rich phenolic content, rests in wood for at least one year. Each vintage is approached differently by us, as each one is a world unto itself.

To paraphrase what a famous chef once said about avant-garde cooking: know everything and forget everything. The guiding principles that inspire us and that we simultaneously seek are balance, seriousness, rigor, simplicity, and controlled restlessness.

Considering every aspect of what we do, remaining open to all stimuli and innovations, being restless yet always with a clear direction in mind, acknowledging that nothing is truly as it seems, adhering to rigor, not neglecting any detail, reading and interpreting nature with purity and simplicity. And finally, balance, never perfectly achieved but always sought after: balance in all our decisions and balance with nature. Its soul must be respected, its good health maintained, and its identity read and unveiled in every fold. All of this to create a wine in harmony with its parents (soil, climate, grape, and yeast), with us, and with those who drink it. A wine that, by virtue of the characteristics of our territory and our way of working, is rich, concentrated, profound, complex, and long-lasting, yet never forgets its Emiliano roots. It remains immediate, sunny, harmonious, devoid of intellectualism, a wine that preserves all the pleasantness of the natural-human environment of our region.

People

Territory

The landscape of La Tosa is beautiful, with forests, vineyards, green slopes, and relatively untouched nature. It is inhabited by animals such as squirrels, roe deer, deer, foxes, wild boars, badgers, partridges, grey herons, and cormorants. The area is wild because it consists of a sparsely fertile and wooded plateau that historically attracted little human activity. It lies between the entrances of two valleys: the Val Nure to the east and the Val Trebbia to the west. The plateau stretches for five kilometers and gently slopes from south to north, ranging in altitude from 300 to 150 meters.

From a pedogeological perspective, it belongs to the category of Antique Red Soils, found in the provinces of Piacenza and Parma. These remnants of plains were uplifted hundreds of thousands of years ago, following the rise of the Apennines. These are the oldest lands in all of Emilia-Romagna, terraces formed by the deposition of fluvial sediments. They have remained in place since then, without undergoing significant movements or landslides. The rainwater, falling repeatedly on the same soil fractions, has depleted them of nitrogen and fertility, while enriching them with mineral elements. Additionally, it has dissolved and carried limestone deep underground, which is currently almost absent on the surface. Furthermore, rainwater has transported and accumulated iron and manganese in the form of nodules and concretions. That's why beneath the surface of our soil, numerous Ferretti can be found, dark iron concretions, explaining the reddish color of the soil, attributed to the oxidation of iron.

These soils, therefore, are not very fertile and rich in mineral elements, tending to be clayey-silty and subacidic. They are characterized by the strong retention of water, due to the silt, and substances, due to the clays: all contributing to the structure, complexity, color intensity, longevity, and the provision of mineral aromas in wines.