Zoppi Cristina, Monferrato

Cristina Zoppi and Ezio Chiara met while working for a small company that supplied parts for Fiat. In 1991 they decided to start a life in agriculture and moved to Ezio’s family farm, located northeast of Asti in the zone of Monferrato. Here, in the commune of Viarigi in a hilltop hamlet named Pergatti Collina, Ezio’s family raised its own animals and had a small business raising crops, including vines. Cristina joined in the family work full-time while Ezio stayed on the job with the Fiat company, lending a hand on weekends. The dream was always to have their own label with their own wine.

As Ezio’s father grew older, he proposed that Cristina take the helm of her own business. He had taught her everything he knew of viticulture, which he in turn had learned from his father, and he was ready to retire. Specific vineyard parcels were bequeathed to her and papers were drawn up: the legal name became Azienda Agricola Zoppi Cristina.

Over the years, she and Ezio cobbled together other parcels while raising a family (one son in 1996 and another in 2001). One of those parcels grew around an ancient Roman chapel that stood on the pinnacle of a hill. Above the side entrance was a porthole window with three circles, which Cristina and Ezio took to symbolize the heart, mind, and spirit.

Early this century they reached their zenith: 15 hectares or 37 acres in various parcels surrounded by forest and hazelnut orchards. From then on, they concentrated on getting the vineyards in shape as they farmed sustainably and sold the crop to the local co-op. In 2010 they went organic and acquired certification in 2013. It always hurt to see the grapes that they took such care to cultivate going to the co-op, but it was necessary for cash flow.

In 2016, they teamed up with a neighboring winery to take a portion of these grapes to make their own wine, realizing their dream after setting out twenty-five years earlier. Consequently, the next year Ezio quit the Fiat company to go full-time at the farm.

It was during these years that Federico Russo approached Cristina to see about buying some of her organic grapes. He was the winemaker at his family winery of Crotin in Monferrato. Federico worked with the acclaimed enologist Cristiano Garella, and on a subsequent visit Federico brought Garella, who quickly saw the potential that Zoppi’s sandy white calcareous hillside vineyards offered for wines of focus and finesse. One thing led to another and from the 2018 vintage onward, the wines have been made at Crotin under the watchful eyes of Federico and Cristiano Garella.

All grapes are hand-harvested and de-stemmed, and all ferments are allowed to happen spontaneously. The main varieties are raised in stainless steel while the Nebbiolo is raised in second and third passage 500L barrels. Their 15 hectares (pictured above are their Ruchè vines) break down into:

8 of Barbera
4 of Ruchè
3 of Grignolino

In addition, they have a small parcel of less than half an hectare of Nebbiolo. Along with vines, Cristina and Ezio also tend 15 hectares of hazelnuts organically.