Luigi Ferrando has long been the leading producer of wines from the Canavese region where his family’s winemaking tradition goes back to 1900. Like many of our producers, he has strong ties to his local region. His attachment and commitment run deep, and have led him to collaborate with other wine growers and academics. Together, they are responsible for discovering and preserving local grape varieties and traditions that might otherwise have been lost. Luigi’s sons, Roberto and Andrea, now work with him on the estate (Roberto) and in the family’s vinoteca (Andrea) located in the heart of the city of Ivrea, the commercial hub of the Canavese region. Thus, the continuation of the Ferrando tradition has been enabled.
Technically speaking, the Canavese is part of Piedmont. Its location at the frontier of the Valle d’Aosta, the very edge of Piedmont, an area renowned for its steeply terraced vineyards, imparts a distinctive quality to the wines. The Ferrandos painstakingly cultivate their Nebbiolo vineyards on the mountainside terroir of Carema, in an amphitheater that sits in the very shadows of Monte Bianco.
The resulting wine is very different than its more famous cousins from Barolo or Barbaresco and is sought after by connoisseurs for its finesse, complexity, and longevity. Their other vineyard holdings are lower in altitude, on the plains and hills of the Canavese region, in and around the village of Caluso, approximately 45 minutes north of Torino. Here, they work with interesting local grape varieties and are particularly known for their Erbaluce di Caluso. The Erbaluce grape is an ancient white variety that originates, and can only be found, in the alpine foothills of this northwestern corner of Piedmont. It has a bright acidity, an elegant underlying minerality, and a complex structure that makes it the ultimate flexible wine: producing everything from sparkling wine, through bone-dry, off-dry, and late harvest wines.
The Ferrando wines were the very first wines we imported to the United States back in January 1980. This was at a time when Carema and Erbaluce were unknown to almost anyone who did not live within 50 kilometers of Torino. It has been our particular pleasure and satisfaction to see the growing respect for these exceptional wines within the American market, further proof of the compelling, almost mystical aura that is at the core of the series of wines produced by the Ferrando family.
Farming
Lutte Raisonnée
Treatments
Copper sulfate only, with synthetic fungicides used only when strictly necessary
Ploughing
Annual hoeing to maintain vineyard health
Soils
Granitic glacial moraines
Vines
Trained in Pergolas and Guyot and planted at 1,800 vines/ha, vines average 35 years old
Yields
Controlled through pruning, debudding, and green harvesting
Harvest
Entirely manual, usually mid-October
Sourcing
Carema wines are entirely estate fruit, some Erbaluce and Canavese Rosso fruit is purchased from local growers, with whom the Ferrando family has worked for generations
Fermentation
After total destemming, wines ferment in stainless steel tanks. Dry white wines ferment with cultured yeasts. Other wines ferment with indigenous yeasts. Cuvaison lasts 15-20 days
Extraction
Wines see pumpovers and racks-and-returns during fermentation
Chaptalization
None
Pressing
Pneumatic pressing
Malolactic Fermentation
Spontaneous for red wines, blocked by temperature and sulfur for white wines
Élevage
Erbaluce ages c. 6 in stainless-steel and barriques, White-label Carema ages in neutral, 5-20-hl Slavonian-oak botti for 36 months, Black-label Carema ages in neutral barriques for 36 months. Passito ages 24 months in neutral barriques
lees
Red wines are racked off their lees following malolactic. Wines remain on fine lees until assemblage prior to bottling
Fining and Filtration
Wines are unfined. Wines other than Carema see cartridge filtration, Carema wines are unfiltered
sulfur
Applied at harvest, after vinification, and at bottling, with 80-90 mg/l total sulfur for red wines and 100-120 mg/l for white wines
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