Whatever you do, don't make wine

Clouds were hanging heavy between the hilltops of Monferrato, obscuring the early morning light. It was 26 September 2024 and today was harvest day in Vigna San Pietro – an old Grignolino vineyard with white calcareous marl soils nestled on a gentle slope, with the Alps looming in the distance and a little church towering over the gate. The atmosphere was tense. It had rained in the days prior, and the foggy mornings so typical of Piemonte combined with Grignolino’s super tight bunches created the perfect conditions for botrytis, a finicky fungus that munches on moist grapes and spreads faster than the smell of reduction at a natural wine fair. It was all hands on deck: the professional harvesters, the entire Arditi family and me were all going up and down the rows of vines, carefully selecting the best bunches of Grignolino for our NR3.

"Peux-tu croire que mes enfants choisissent librement de faire ce travail?",  I heard from across the canopy. I moved the leaves aside and saw Guiseppe – Mario’s father - crouched, dexterously selecting and harvesting bunches. French was the only language we had in common – the result of a lengthy career that took him to France for many years. His father – Mario’s grandfather - had warned his children: “Whatever you do, do not go into wine – it is hard and there is no money to be earned. Go, study and find a stable job instead” - coincidentally the same advice I received when talking to people about Nova Radix. But unlike me, Giuseppe and his siblings heeded the advice, leaving the ancestral lands in the hands of others, while building a life outside of wine.

It is a story shared among many winemaking regions across the world. Faced with grape prices so low, declining demand, extreme weather events decimating entire crops and the hard labour required to grow healthy qualitative grapes, younger generations born into wine are opting out at a rapid pace (case in point: the average age of Italian winemakers is now over 60 years). Everything is connected, of course: if wine lovers cannot or will not pay more than say, 10 euros a bottle (looking angrily at you, supermarkets), it is in effect impossible for small and medium-sized winemakers to make their hours and hours of hard physical work pay enough to live off.

All of this makes the story of Cinque Quinti even more remarkable. Supported by their parents Giuseppe and Manuela, Fabrizio, Michele, Martina, Francesca and Mario decided to continue the grape growing and winemaking tradition of their grandfather. Each sibling bringing their unique set of skills and expertise to Cinque Quinti, from agronomy to oenology to marketing to sales to events, they are reviving their ancestors’ legacy and leaving their own mark on the winemaking tradition in Monferrato (wine and techno, anyone?).

“This place, the vines, the winemaking – it is in my blood”, Mario had said earlier that morning – unconsciously anticipating the question his father had just asked me. We brought the grapes to the winery and together, despite the hardship, the advice against it, and a declining market, Mario and I did what we felt we needed to do: make wine and in doing so, keep Grignolino and the winemaking tradition in Monferrato alive.

Photo: Giuseppe, Mario's father, harvesting Grignolino in Vigna San Pietro