The same hill,
four stubborn generations.
Maison Cortese has farmed the slopes of Bricco delle Viole since Elena and Paolo Cortese bought the land with a dowry in 1887. We’ve changed almost nothing.
Farm first.
Certified organic since 2004. No chemical herbicides, no systemic fungicides. We walk the rows six days a week because no machine can read a vine.
Time is the vintner.
Our Riserva rests five years before release. Our Barbaresco, two. We’ve never pushed a bottle out to meet a season. The hills don’t hurry, and neither do we.
Family-small.
Seven full-time, a handful of seasonal pickers from the village, and one very opinionated dog. We pour our own wines at the cellar door and ship every bottle with a handwritten note.
A short and stubborn history.
A dowry buys a hill.
Elena and Paolo Cortese purchase the south-facing slopes of Bricco delle Viole with a modest dowry and a stubborn conviction that Nebbiolo belongs here.
The cellar is carved.
Giacomo Cortese and two cousins spend four winters digging the vaulted stone cellar still in use today. Temperature: 13°C year-round. No electricity for the first two decades.
The Franciacorta journey.
Second-generation winemaker Lorenzo travels to Lombardy, falls in love with metodo classico, and comes home with ten hectares of Chardonnay cuttings. The family argues for two years.
Certified organic.
After ten years of transition, the estate is certified organic across all 38 hectares. No synthetic inputs. Cover crops year-round. Biodiversity plans filed with the consorzio.
Sofia takes the cellar.
Fourth-generation winemaker Sofia Cortese returns from Burgundy and Oregon to lead the cellar. Her first Riserva under her own hand is released in 2023 and scores 96 points from Vinous.
Seven cuvées, one hill.
We release around 58,000 bottles a year. Never more. Allocations go first to a short list of restaurants; the rest is sold directly to friends, old and new, via this cellar door.
Sofia Cortese.
Born three kilometres from the cellar. Enology degree from the University of Turin. Three vintages at Domaine de Vogué in Burgundy. One unusually cold year at Evening Land in Oregon. Back on the hill since 2018.
“My grandfather told me the first rule of making wine here is to leave the hill alone long enough for it to have an opinion. I’m still trying to listen that carefully.”
2016 — the year everything lined up
Coffee at 5am. Vineyard walk by 6.
Come sit at the long table.
The easiest way to understand this place is to walk the rows at sunrise and taste the wine in the room it was made. We keep appointments small and unhurried.