Bruna

Riccardo Bruna's daughters Francesca and Annamaria went to Genoa for their studies, convinced that engineering and pharmaceutical chemistry was their future. But it didn't take them long to convince themselves of the opposite and they were drawn back to the vineyards of their beautiful Ligurian homeland. Her father's deep-rooted passion for Ligurian wine could not pass the sisters by without leaving a trace.

"My father thought he was a traditionalist, but I knew he was in fact a revolutionary," says Francesca Bruna, who today successfully continues the Bruna family winery together with her husband Roberto. Her father Riccardo had indeed revolutionary views on Ligurian viticulture and was one of the first winemakers to devote his heart and soul to growing the Pigato grape - a white, late-ripening grape variety related to the Vermentino.

Thanks to Riccardo Bruna's intuition and enthusiasm, he began to restore and sustainably cultivate the historic family vineyards in Ranzo in the early 1970s. From the very beginning, abandoning all herbicides and synthetic products was the only possible way for Riccardo Bruna to harvest the best grapes and thus produce ever better wines every year. This approach was not very common at the time, which meant that the winery was able to stand out from the competition.

Courageous decisions were therefore a constant part of the company's working philosophy and the following generation has also remained faithful to it: In addition to the biological-natural cultivation of the vines, fermentation takes place in the cellar with native yeasts. Pure yeasts are used without exception and the wines mature for a long time on the noble autochthonous lees.

"This has always been our way of working with Pigato grapes," says Francesca, who is now one of the leading quality producers in Liguria. The typical characteristics of the grape variety and Riccardo's personality should remain unmistakable in their own wines, which Francesca and Roberto have undoubtedly achieved. In collaboration with the oenologist Valter Bonetti, they produce not only tasty Pigato wines but also an outstanding Vermentino and harmonious red wine cuvées from the Rossese, Granaccia, Syrah and Barbera grape varieties.

Today, eight hectares of vineyards thrive on Ligurian stone wall terraces between the municipalities of Ortovero and Ranzo, amidst Mediterranean maquis, olive trees and oaks. The dry, mild and very windy climate allows the vines to grow in a natural way, surrounded by the endless horizon of the western Mediterranean and the enchanted green landscape of the Ligurian Alps. The Bruna winery represents Liguria's unique beauty and diversity, preserved for a long time by the family of the same name. SUPERIORE.DE