Croci

Massimiliano Croci is the soul of the small Croci winery, a Colli Piacentini winery that bases its production philosophy on values such as genuineness and territoriality. Together with his brother Giuseppe, Massimiliano nurtures a nearly century-old family tradition started by his grandfather Giuseppe, a farmer's son. He moved in 1935 to the hill of Monterosso, overlooking the village of Castell'Arquato, and began renovating a multi-purpose farm that had a stable and fodder fields, activities that complemented grape growing. In the decades that followed Giuseppe's 9 children emigrated, some to Argentina others to London, all except Ermano, father of Massimiliano and Giuseppe, who stayed to help his parents. In the 1970s the estate produced bulk wine to sell to private individuals and taverns, while in 1980 Ermano, encouraged by his wife Silvana, labeled the first bottles, always following the Emilian tradition of bottle-fermented wines, never yielding to the advent of the autoclave. Today the barn is gone but the vineyards and fields remain, and from them Massimiliano produces a high-quality flour.

At an elevation of 250 meters above sea level, on clay and sandy soils of Pliocene origin, the family-run Croci estate raises the traditional grape varieties of the Colli Piacentini, namely Barbera, Croatina, Malvasia di Candia Aromatica, Trebbiano, Ortrugo and Moscato, as well as the French-origin varieties Sauvignon Blanc and Marsanne. The first fermentation takes place spontaneously in steel or cement tanks, with maceration on the skins for the white grapes as well. For refermentations, the Croci use, in keeping with the Emilian tradition, the Anchestral Method technique, which consists of bottling the must-wine with still some residual sugar, so that in the spring, when temperatures rise again, indigenous yeasts transform the sugars inside the bottle, producing a natural effervescence. The exception is the Spumante Pas Dosé 'Alfiere', which is made through the Metodo Classico technique.

The Croci winery's wine production is thus focused on bottle-fermented wines, ancestral expressions of the Colli Piacentini territory. These are labels with a forthright and direct personality, characterized by an almost dangerous smoothness!