Francesca Castaldi 'Lucia' Vino Bianco 2023

From one of the top estates in the Alto Piemonte, this 100% Erbaluce (aka Greco Novarese) is grown in well-drained, pebbly soils. In our estimation, Erbaluce is under the radar and deserves a lot more attention, but there's just not enough made.

"Azienda Francesca Castaldi is a small estate based in the Alto Piedmonte’s Fara DOC. This is the first slope heading north from Novara that starts the Alto Piedmonte region.

The Castaldi family has been farming this region since the 1700’s, but it was Francesca’s father Pierino who really threw his passion and innovations into the vineyards and wines. He was a smart and tenacious man. After World War II he managed to build his first tractor- naming it “Nobody’s son” because he built it by putting together recovery parts he took from other machines. Pierino Castaldi saw his region of Fara become classified an official DOC in 1969.

In 1997, his daughter Francesca took over the family vineyards and started a project of renewal. In the vineyards, she changed the vineyard plots from the traditional pergola pruning system to Guyot, which was in line with some more modern growing techniques happening in other regions of Italy and beyond. She then eliminated all use of chemicals and fertilizers and is now practicing organic viticulture."