On the eleventh of November 1964, Luigi Calatroni was sitting at a table: in front of him was a sheet of paper with the stamp of the Montecalvo Versiggia municipality, a document that would change his life forever and that was just waiting for a signature... his!
That sheet of paper was a contract attesting to the transfer of ownership of the Casa Bella land from the Vecchietti family to Luigi. Until 1964, Luigi had cultivated those pinot noir vines as a sharecropper, like the four generations before him. The sharecropper was a winegrower who paid rent for the land with half of the vineyard's yield (and you know: for a winegrower, his grapes are like his children).
After years spent in the sun and rain tending the vines, after the terrible campaign in Russia during the Second World War and an adventurous return to his homeland with makeshift means, the Vigiö d'la Cà Bela (as he was called) had succeeded: he had conquered a strip of land in the Versa valley and would hand it down with pride to the next generation.
But let's move on to the present day. So many things have changed over the years: tractors are almost perfect machines, technology in the cellar has evolved and the concept of wine is no longer what it once was.
It's midday and from the kitchen comes the smell of freshly prepared agnolotti: Marisa calls everyone to report... "It's lunchtime! Fausto gets off the tractor, making sure that the hose isn't leaking oil, Cristian comes out of the cellar after making sure that all the barrels are in place and Stefano, back from deliveries, calls the girls into the office "It's ready!".
A family is sitting at a table in front of a plate of steaming agnolotti accompanied by a bottle of Pinot Noir. Amidst the hubbub of the table, a thought occasionally crops up... Would all this have been possible if Vigiö's tenacity had not pushed him to fulfil his dream?
