Legend has it that the Osteria del Bastardo rosed along the ancient Flaminia road, favourite destination for good food, good wine and good living lovers. Here the host, son of unknown parents, served people traveling from Rome to Northern Italy with soft and fragrant wines.
Today his legend keeps living and gives the town its name, Bastardo in fact, keeping intact the passion for hospitality and conviviality.
Our family, Cesarini Sartori, composed by Luciano Cesarini, an electrical engineer on an international level and entrepreneur in the field of electricity; Giuseppe Cesarini, in business with him, and his wife Fiorella Sartori, took the legacy of "Bastardo”. At the end of the 1990s, they decided together to give up their previous careers and return to country life by dedicating themselves to wine production.
Newbies in the sector but very motivated, they begin to study and visit wineries in Italy and abroad to learn the job. Luciano's skills in electrical engineering were invaluable for the design of the winery which is still considered to be one of the most technologically advanced in Europe and which allows efficient and "healthy" winemaking, without resorting on synthetic chemistry.
There is no doubt about the land to buy, the vineyards will take root in Bastardo, the birthplace of Luciano and Giuseppe: a hill with a strong vocation for the production of wine grapes, with clayey soils and lake substrate, and characterized by an uncontaminated landscape, whose sinuous profile is interrupted only by the silhouettes of medieval castles.
The island of fermenters is controlled by a computer that controls the main parameters of each tank and from which it is possible to intervene promptly in the event of an anomaly and set up winemaking operations, such as micro-oxygenation , useful for reduce the astringency of tannins and stabilize the color of the wine.
Each fermenter is equipped with hot and cold bands to change the temperature of the tank in a few seconds: this technology allows the extraction of colors and aromas through the pre-fermentation cryo-maceration , a procedure with contact between the skins and the liquid at low temperature that does not trigger alcoholic fermentation.
The barrel room is equipped with a purified water atomisation system to increase the humidity of the air and keep the wood in the barrels always in optimal conditions, preventing them from absorbing the wine inside.
Innovation in the cellar, dedication, rebellious spirit are the aspects that make us commit to the production of an ever better wine, regardless of the dictates of the disciplinary . With less tannic bitterness and more pleasantness, like a perfect companion on the table, irreverent and bewitching.
Ours is a completely redesigned idea of a winery, which puts aside the tweaks of synthetic chemistry, including sulphites, and makes room for intense manual work combined with the efficiency of technology to leave nothing to chance and everything to nature. From pre-fermentative cryo-maceration to micro-oxygenation, from the extraction of saturated air to the isolation of electromagnetic fields, everything works in harmony to create a wine capable of giving the best of itself.
Sangiovese, Merlot, Cabernet and Sagrantino are the vines that populate our 30 hectares of productive land: of these, 20 hectares surround the winery, 7 are located in Villa Rode, where we organically grow and produce grape jams and juice, and 3 hectares in Casale di Montefalco
The grapes, grown with harmless treatments both for the surrounding environment and for humans and harvested by hand, selected and cleaned even before reaching the cellar. We select the best bunches, using small boxes to keep the fruit intact, and we carefully take extraneous elements (such as leaves) away.
Once in the cellar, technology takes care of the grapes to avoid any use of synthetic chemicals, especially sulphites.
The environment is equipped with an electromagnetic field isolation system, to guarantee a natural aging to the wine, without interference.
In the fermentation rooms and in the barrel room, a complete recirculation of air is performed every 24 hours to eliminate any bacteria and reduce the amount of CO2 produced in the fermentation phase, preserving the wine and the health of those who work in the winery.
Let's put the vine and grapes back at the center of productive thinking to fully understand the characteristics of the raw material and let ourselves be intrigued by its unexplored potential. In collaboration with the Universities of Florence, Perugia and Cesena we go beyond the concept of wine to return to the roots of Vitis Vinifera, identifying new uses for the production’s waste from winemaking that become precious elements in the nutraceutical field or to increase the natural defenses of the wine itself, with the aim of creating a true circular economy with a positive environmental impact.
It all started from legends and beliefs according to which Sagrantino has healing properties: the very name of the grape, derived from the word “sacred” and its use in masses, give the wine an almost magical connotation. Added to this is the story of Frederick II of Svevia, which story tells how he healed his Sacred Falcon thanks to the Sagrantino grapes found along his path in the territory of Montefalco. Sagrantino is also a classic grandmother's remedy, which includes eggnog beaten with the passito wine as a tonic for convalescent children.
Science confirms this thanks to the analysis carried out by the University of Florence on a homemade Sagrantino jam. In fact, the outcome rewards this vine which, compared to the others, is characterized by the highest content of natural sugars and polyphenols.
Even its leaves, seeds, skins, stalks, which make up 80% of the plant and which are excluded from the production of wine, become in the light of this research, important resources for health products thanks to their antioxidant properties and antiseptics.
Our approach based on "zero waste" and on the positive environmental impact allowed the birth of the innovative start-up Good Life Lab which, together with the Universities of Florence, Perugia and Cesena, who studies the optimal use of every part of the vine in order to make food supplements and nutraceutical products, also approved by the Ministry of Health.