Tassarolo, Italy
The food, the wine, the scenery…
You perfect destination for your eco-friendly retreat
Tassarolo: Biodynamic Vineyards in Beautiful North Italy
The venue is located in the village of Tassarolo, in the heart of Gavi, has 18 hectares of vineyards organized around the winery.
The workshops are held in the main building, the winery, which is fully renovated. The participants can enjoy the breathtaking scenery, a walk in the vineyards, a stroll in the nearby forest, a ride on the horses, a good glass of wine and organic meals.
If you have the time you can add at the end of the workshop a day or two of leisure, or a trip to the nearby villages and mountains.
Our Philosophy
Respect for life in all its forms is the principle on which we base our philosophy: concretely, that means respecting nature as land, and as a place where people, animals, insects, plants and trees live together in harmony, and not least, respecting our health and that of the people we work with.
Respect can only exist if you listen. It is listening to nature that Biodynamic agriculture was shaped, a way of practicing agriculture that enriches the earth with nutrients, recreating connections and recreating life.
The secret is to understand the mysterious powers of nature, and turn them into a benefit; to practice agriculture according to the rules of nature. Biodynamic farming actually opposes the principle of exploitation help up by industrial farming, which makes the soil numb, arid and dead and turns out fruits lacking flavor and nutrients, so poisonous that insects stay clear of them.
The wine from biodynamic farming – the fruit of a respectful collaboration between man and earth – is good for our health, like any other product of biodynamic farming.
One of the key principles of our winery is allowing our customers to experience the benefits of a soil cultivated with love and religious respect.
Moreover, just as Biodynamic farming renews life in the earth creating connections, among which there is the fundamental one between earth and sky, Steiner’s philosophy, on which Biodynamic farming is based, seeks to create connections between human beings that are healthier and more harmonious.
In our winery, too, we want to create more meaningful and human connections among the people who work here and transmit this philosophy also to the outside world and to our customers through our products, hoping that a more balanced value system will eventually be ‘contagious’ and spread in the world like circles around a pebble thrown into a lake.
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Our Biodynamic Vineyards
Our property, located in the village of Tassarolo, in the heart of Gavi, has 18 hectares of vineyards organized around the winery. The grape varieties we grow here are Cortese di Gavi, Barbera and Cabernet Sauvignon.
In 2006 our company began to practice biodynamic agriculture. T
he methods of this type of farming were first discussed by Rudolf Steiner in 1924, in a response letter to the Count of Keyserlingk and his peasants who had complained about soil erosion and low-quality crops. In a series of conferences which lay the foundations of biodynamic agriculture Steiner emphasized the importance of “life forces”.
This type of agriculture, which focuses on soil quality and on the equilibrium of the plants, foresees the use of green manure, such as horn manure and horn silica, biodynamic compost and macerated vegetative matter.
Obviously, it never makes use of herbicides, chemical substances or systemic products which enter into the life cycle of the plants.
At the beginning of spring, we do not use desiccants – or glyphosate – to limit the growth of the grass: we merely do some cutting or tilling between the vine rows and otherwise tolerate a bit of grass.
To avoid diseases of the vine we only use two products: Sulphur and copper, as farmers did a hundred years ago. The doses are limited and parametrized. The inspection bodies of the organic certification center could arrive in any vineyard at any time, to take a sample of leaves for analysis. Sulphur and copper are systemic products, but they are washed away by the rain. At the end of June we do the last treatment if weather conditions make it necessary. Then we leave the plants untouched until harvest.
We spray on horn manure and horn silica, two entirely natural preparations. Horn manure is applied several times in autumn and in spring, while horn silica is sprayed onto the leaves generally before the harvest period as it enhances photosynthesis and stimulates the ripening of the grapes.
In autumn we use the Biodynamic heap as fertilizer. Composted for six months, it is enriched with cattle and horse manure, hay and pomace.
In addition, we plant green manure, a mix of leguminous plants which are grown in alternate rows in the vineyards and can grow up to one meter high. In May/June we cut them and bury them in the soil. They provide the vine with natural nitrogen, allow the soil to breathe by loosening up the earth with their roots and promote biodiversity attracting bees, butterflies and other insects. Let us remember that oxygen is the element most essential for a fertile soil.
Thus, we strive to live side by side with nature, without wanting to dominate.
Our goal is to create a balance within the plants – not to overproduce them. Mankind should respect the earth from which life is born. Therefore, we must preserve the environment, the people and animals that live there, the groundwater reserves and the air. The earth is our source of food and water. What kind of place will we leave to future generations if we keep poisoning the earth, poising ourselves?
Massimiliana Spinola
The Founder
I have never wanted to play by “the rules of the game”, an attitude which, if you believe in genetics, could be considered hereditary.
My father Paolo Spinola left Genova at a young age to start his career as a film director in Rome. I inhabited the world of cinema of my father and, in 1975, witnessed his passage from the filmmaking business to the winemaking one.
My grandfather had a large farming estate in the Gavi area, surrounding the Tassarolo Castle, a surviving fragment of the former state of Spinolino. He delighted in playing the role of the ‘landlord’, living at the pace of a bygone era.
In the mid-1970s my father and my uncle took over the farming and winemaking part, speeding things up a bit. In those days we used the big cellar under the Castle, a magical place with huge oak barrels, crevices covered with moss and a humid, uneven floor.
I spent most of my time wandering around in the dark with a torch in my hand, observing the ceaseless repair works performed on the wooden staves of the giant oak barrels.
The garden and park of the Castle were my favourite places to observe, and experiment with, nature.
One of my ancestors, Massimiliano Spinola (1780-1857), had been a famous entomologist. His collection of insects and butterflies was kept in the tower of the castle. That was my point of attraction. I recently discovered that he died on the same day that I was born: 12 November.
Ever since I can remember, I have loved Nature, animals and insects. I have felt like I am part of the whole, instead of going against it. I reunited with Nature here in the winery, when I moved back to Tassarolo from London in 2005.
After graduating from university, I had travelled the world, worked in art and lived in New York and London, but I had never broken my bond with the winery.
And when I arrived here with my son of a few months I instantly understood that the winery could become my next “art work” through which to express my values and ideals. Here I could transform life into my own creation.
The conversion to biodynamic agriculture felt like a mandatory step, one year after my arrival.
The greatest challenge was the human one: to create a team and make it work together in harmony, integrate and manage it. People, the most valuable asset, never just come together by chance.
I have had some very special people by my side along the way, who believed in what I was doing. But in particular, two people have been most influential: Bonifacio Spinola, a distant relative from the branch of the Spinola family in Rome, but who is actually closer to me than a brother and who became my associate with whom I work hand in hand and Miri Velli, a strict but fair counsellor who runs the cellar and the vineyards and has put his heart and soul into the winery.