About Winery and Wines

Bruna winery was born out of my father Riccardo’s insight and passion. He is the most typical of Ligurian hinterland men: strict and stubborn, shy at times, and although he thinks of himself as a conservative, I know that he is a revolutionist at heart. In the early seventies, he produced and bottled Pigato wine from the family’s historic vineyards in Ranzo. He was the first in town to do it and he made a decision on his future which was quite uncommon back in those days in Liguria. My maternal grandfather supported him from the very start and planted new vineyards in Ortovero. His name was Virginio Capello, he was a farmer blessed with a sophisticated and modern-oriented mind, he was a visionary. He even thought of opening an ice-cream parlor in Constantinople in the twenties! He has always believed in the Pigato variety. I remember him with great affection, as an old, skinny man, seated on the doorsteps while peering at the pergola vineyards planted all around, as if they were holding him in their embrace. My father, whom we all affectionately called U Baccan, the local dialect word for “boss”, worked hard over the years to expand the family-owned vineyards, paying great attention to both the best-positioned winegrowing soil and the production of wines reflecting his personality and the grape variety’s typicality. He was a great innovator in those years….

Our family grows mostly Pigato grapes. It is a biotype of Vermentino, which has developed such unique, unreproducible characteristics in the Albenga and Arroscia Valley area that it is considered to be a distinct grape variety. Our vineyards grow along the typical Ligurian terraced hillsides with stone walls, scattered across the hills of Ortovero and Ranzo, a well-known Pigato winegrowing area. The microclimate is Mediterranean, dry and windy, with the sea and its endless horizon on one side and the Ligurian Alps, greenery, light and silence on the other. The vineyards grow in harmony with olive trees, oaks, holm-oaks and Mediterranean scrub. The landscape is wild, the roads steep and full of bends, the clouds moving fast across the sky. Surrounded by such a magnificent scenery, we practice natural farming methods, without using weedkillers nor systemic or synthetic products. We respect the soil, keep it alive and the vineyards in harmony with the surrounding plants and insects. The land moulds our wines. In the area around Ortovero, the soil is loose and rocky, owing to the separation of groups of sedimentary rocks. That is where, in addition to Pigato, we grow Granaccia, Rossese and Syrah grapes, as well as, but to a lesser extent, other red grape varieties. The wines are savoury and lively.