MARIA ERNESTA BERUCCI
Piglio, Lazio
In 2009, Maria and her brother decided it was time to revive the family's roots and produced a wine from this vineyard site called "l'Onda" (the wave) as it announced the next wave of winemakers in the Massimi family. Slowly they have been recuperating some of the family's historic parcels and renting other quality sites. Berucci is looking especially for old vines of Cesanese d’Affile, a biotype of Cesanese that produces a higher quality wine than the Cesanese Commune biotype. They now work with 2.5h of vine- a very small size of land that we’d put in the ‘micro-production’ category.
Berucci is a natural wine producer. She adheres to strict principles in the vineyards and even avoids the allowable amount of copper and sulfur sprays for organic qualification. All the wines are fermented spontaneously with absolutely no additives during the winemaking process. She often does not even add sulfur at bottling, which is quite impressive since the wines arrive to us without flaw.
In April 2023 I had the fortune of meeting Maria and her husband, Geminiano and they explained to me the measures they’re taking to care for their vines. They are working to convert their vineyards from organic production to agro-homeopathic, akin to biodynamics but more stringent in the vineyards. The philosophy behind the ‘madness’ is understanding nature’s natural symbiosis - nature has its own way of healing itself and certain plants grow in certain places for a reason. For example, a fragrant Mediterranean shrub might grow in the vineyard and act as a natural pest repellent. The purpose is to allow the vines to ward off any maladies themselves and encourage the vineyards to reestablish their balance with as little human intervention as possible.
“Plants talk to each other” says Geminiano. “If we go in and spray or till excessively, we’re disrupting their conversation and communication. It’s like human beings- it makes no sense to talk or give out information when no one is around. We exchange information only when we build lines of communication with one another.”
Geminiano then showed me their fermenting cow dung mixture... it’s a concoction that they spray on the old vines, “the microorganisms stimulate and regenerate growth.” To the onlooker, their methods may seem extreme, “Crunchy Hippy” in California terms, but for them it’s the only way and if this system works, why would they do anything else? Healing the earth while cultivating and growing nutritious food sounds like exactly what we human beings need. For these two, it’s an entire way of life.
an old vine with the cow dung treatment applied.
old vine Cesanese from Maria’s father’s first vineyard.
To understand the literal fruits of this endeavor, Maria and Geminiano ferment the grapes from the different vineyards separately. We tasted the wine from the homeopathic vineyard and it was perfect. Perfect in a way I never understood wine to be perfect. Yes everything was in balance, but there was something else: the wine was light, which is true to Cesanese d’Affile’s chracter, but full of flavor, like a Cesanese to the max with fresh, rosey red cherry; pencil shaving, graphite; herbs; and a ton of minerality. If these methods stick, Maria and Geminiano will be pioneers of a whole new movement in Italy. In fact, when we were at lunch, Maria looked down at her phone, “I received a message from Chiara Pepe. They want to come visit and see what we’re doing in the vineyards. Ti immagini (can you believe it)!? Emidio Pepe wants to come to our small corner of Piglio and see what we do!”
It’s exciting to say the least- it’s exhilarating; it’s the future of responsible agriculture.
We have two bottlings of Maria and Geminiano in the shop. The Raphael is a blend of all vineyards, and a great entry into understanding not just the Cesanese grape from Piglio, but how a natural wine doesn’t have to be synonymous with upfront flaws. The L’Onda is old vine Cesanese, over 60yrs old, from her mixed clay and volcanic vineyard, with large oak barrel aging.
an organic vineyard next to that of Berucci’s homeopathic. The fava beans are a cover crop used to regenerate the soil before the fruiting season.
Maria and Geminiano in the homeopathic vineyard. The vegetation is natural and self propagated.
*Chiara is the daughter of Emidio Pepe, the famed Montepulciano and Trebbiano winemaker in the Abruzzo. The wines are so allocated and in demand, getting your hands on them is already a miracle- and of course if you’re willing to pay the high price.