PEOPLE
We are a small and young company that started from scratch. We are an urban winery: we produce artisanal and personal wines in the city of Collegno, in the province of Turin.
The reins of the company are in the hands of Alessia, winegrower and urban winemaker, daily fascinated by nature and the art of winemaking. This project is also her redemption as a woman who wants to be both a mother and a worker.
Mattia, Alessia's husband, has his own main business and in the company acts as a dream maker, an occasional worker and, last but not least, the sales manager.
Lastly, not in order of importance, we find Leo, the youngest of the family: a constant source of inspiration and positive energy!
For our friends, we are the Uccis.
OUR STORY
The UCCI project was born in 2016 as a challenge made of passion, determination and a healthy dose of madness.
Not having a winemaking tradition behind us, we began to study, taste and experiment in search of our personal style. We were lucky enough to learn from a great friend, who hosted us in his cellar and who still guides us in our experiments.
In 2019 we renovated some spaces of our home in Collegno and used it as an Urban Winery. We thus overturned the rule that wants wine to be produced only in the countryside, passing down land and means from generation to generation.
Since 2023 we have been managing a small vineyard in Baldissero Torinese, on the Turin hill. Initially we had to carry out a series of "restoration" interventions in the vineyard: with targeted pruning we gave new vigor to the existing plants, we replaced the failures with new cuttings and we restored controlled grassing on the land.
GRAPES
We specialized on two native Piedmontese vines that we vinify in purity and that we love for their olfactory complexity and propensity for aging.
From our vineyard on the hills of Turin we take the grapes for our red and rose wines.
While waiting to become fully self-sufficient, we buy the remaining grapes from trusted winemakers who work without the use of systemic products. We take care of the harvest and the vinification ourselves.
Our wines
L'Ape Furibonda
I am a little furious bee.
I like to change color.
I like to change size.
-Alda Merini-
L'Equilibrista
Life is like riding a bicycle.
To keep your balance,
you must keep moving.
-Albert Einstein-
Philosophy
We produce artisanal and personal wines, based on careful and responsible farming.
Being a wine artisan for us means personally following all the production steps until we create a unique product with attention to the smallest details. Our wines are our creations and as such are our very personal interpretation of a particular grape variety and a particular vintage.
At the same time, it is essential for us to strive for environmental, as well as social and economic well-being, with the aim of leaving a decent quality of life to our son. Respect for the viticultural ecosystem is central to us and we try to express it by ensuring that our wines fully reflect the vintage, for better or for worse. Olfactory purity or openness is another goal that we pursue and are not willing to compromise on.
An artisanal wine is not just an object, but a piece of the life of those who produced it. It contains heart, soul and time. If produced sustainably, it is also hope for the future.
In the vinyard
Our work in the vineyard is aimed at safeguarding the biodiversity of the small ecosystem that we are taking care of and managing.
Our vines are trained using the Guyot system. We do not use herbicides or chemical fertilizers. We have opted for controlled grassing with cover crops: this helps us improve the quality of the soil, in terms of structure and organic matter, counteract leaching and erosion, contain weeds and last but not least promote biodiversity. We have therefore sown between our rows and in the under-row a mix of legumes and crucifers that remain relatively low (clover, broom and wild rocket): these plants, in addition to fixing nitrogen in the soil, are melliferous plants - that is, friends of bees and other useful insects -, they do not compete with the roots of the vines and reduce the need for mowing. When necessary, we rely on Mr. Luigi's tractor to shred the grass between the rows, while we carry out manual work in the under-row and on the plant. For the supply of organic matter, in addition to leaving the remains of the mowing and the pruning twigs in the field, we use a compost of stalks and grape marc, and when necessary we make green manure. For defense we use copper and sulfur.
A varied fauna (bees and ladybugs, butterflies, grasshoppers, worms, birds, snakes!) finds its habitat of choice in our vineyard.
In the cellar
As for the work in the cellar, we do not have pre-established recipes: every year we try to interpret the vine according to the vintage, with the aim of respecting both, therefore following what nature offers us, but at the same time being guided by our personal intuitions and visions. Every decision on harvest times, on methods and times of processing, on the containers to use and on the duration of the refinement is carefully considered. We therefore move in continuous balance between instinct and rationality, between tastings and analysis data.
We use a pied de cuve made with our own grapes to start the fermentations and in the winemaking process we use only grapes and sulphites. We do not perform clarifications or filtrations. We clean the wines with racking that we carry out with the help of an oenological pump and we stabilize them with the winter cold. Punching down, pumping over, bottling, labeling and packaging are done entirely by hand.
Making a wine that reflects the grape variety, vintage and our personal style, and which is at the same time correct on the nose (which is essential for us), requires time, dedication and control.