There is a part of Piedmont, enclosed between the Langa Astigiana and Monferrato, where the “marin”, the wind that comes from the sea, blows for several days a year.

This breeze has not lost its way, for what it caresses and gently blows over is quite simply another sea – a sea of rolling hills and green vineyards, where the ”marin” creates a special micro-climate, , which stimulates the grapes to ripen while enhancing their aromatic characteristics.

This is a stunning area, where a harmonious landscape of carefully tended rows built up over the centuries by man contrasts with the staggering ruggedness of deep natural fissures between the hills, four hundred metres above sea level. This is the home of the Cascina Piancanelli winery, the “Azienda Vitivinicola Piancanelli” owned by Silvio Laiolo.

Established by Domenico Laiolo and his wife Teresa Penna as a farm in the immediate post-war period. This was a time of great hopes and enthusiasm and they worked hard to make it thrive. The farm gradually expanded until, from just growing grapes, they began to make their wine themselves.

In the 1980s, Giuseppe Laiolo, Domenico’s son, converted it from a farm to a purely wine-growing and wine-producing business, increasing its production and structures and beginning to look to a wider and different market that could discover and appreciate the qualities of these excellent grape varieties and the wines he made from them.

In 1996, Silvio Laiolo, an oenologist and the son of Giuseppe, took over the Piancanelli winery. While aiming to develop the business to meet the demands of the times, he nevertheless maintained it as a family concern (with only some support from experts in the wine-making sector). He also retained the commitment of past generations to the creation of a product that comes into being, develops and is completed in harmony with the natural characteristics of the place where the vines grow: nothing is forced, nothing pointlessly exalted. There is just care and strict, meticulous quality control at every step of the way, from cultivation through to vinification.

All the wines are made exclusively with grapes grown on the Piancanelli estate, which covers about twenty hectares, most of which is devoted to vines.

For some years now, the company has signed up to a EU project for eco-friendly agriculture, by operating in full respect of nature and being able to guarantee in every aspect the absolute authenticity of the products.

At Piancanelli, the concept of quality is all-inclusive, the Piancanelli Winery seeks excellence also in the products surrounding the wine: the bottles used are in anti-UVAG glass (ultraviolet rays) that prevent a possible alteration of the product; the corks are made of certified top-quality, ozone-sterilised Sardinian cork,  the packaging is in triple-layer cardboard to ensure a good thermic isolation and therefore a good storage.

Exports have become increasingly important over the past fifteen years, currently accounting for 65% of turnover. The destinations are mainly in Europe and the Far East, where, together with the quality and fragrance of Piancanelli wines, each bottle brings with it the flavour of history, with the label bearing the crest of the Laiolo family, one of the most ancient in the Astigiano area: six lizards (from whose name in dialect, “laiò”, derives the family’s surname), the big and silent green and stock still lizards in the scorching sun in the vineyards guarding, like incarnations of ancestral forefathers, the growth of gnarled vines and grapes.

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