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On the hill of Pinerolo, Merenda con Corvi is a winery specialized in excellent red wines. The vineyard extends for 7.5 sloping acres, within a property of 25 acres in total; this is an area which has been perfectly suited for growing grapes since the 1700s.
The winery was built by Francesco Romano, a local contractor, who started the construction works in 2000 on abandoned land. In addition to the vineyard, where he re-planted new strains of Barbera and Merlot (trained with the Guyot technique), he restored the nearby barn and the other ancient structures, creating the wine cellar, his own private residence, a bed & breakfast facility with three apartments (“Residenza con Beccata”), a swimming pool, and a terraced garden.

The garden, the vineyard and the swimming pool

He used natural and local materials such as stone, wood, iron and gravel while employing dry stone walls to support the terraced garden; that very stone was obtained from the excavations for the swimming pool. Last but not least, the plaster for the buildings was obtained with natural lime mixed with the very soil of the vineyard.

At the head of each row in the vineyard, old roses, climbing species and shrubs have been planted to prevent powdery mildew, as per the centuries-old agricultural traditions.
Along the slope descending from the vineyard to the buildings, nurseryman Anna Peyron suggested to also plant vast expanses of lavender and blue irises.

In the iron tanks on the swimming pool terrace, some roses have been planted, including Rosa x odorata “Mutabilis”, as well as hydrangeas (Hydrangea macrophylla, H. paniculata, H. quercifolia) with white and pale pink flowers; in front of the cellar, there are herbaceous perennial plants, including Coreopsis verticillata, Gaura lindeimeri, and Helianthemum spp.

THE WINES

Merenda con Corvi produces “Foravia” and “Barbera, obtained from Barbera grapes, and “Merlot”, made with Merlot grapes.
The wine cellar is a technologically advanced facility, where fermentation takes place in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks; French oak barriques are used for the wine ageing.
The latter process is a very slow one and typical of the noblest and longest-lived local wines. Merenda con Corvi usually bottles the wine two years after the harvest and sells it after a year of resting in glass containers.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)