Azienda Agricola Montesissa Emilio
Elisabetta Montesissa
Carpaneto

1,000 years ago, the land on the hills of Val Charo – in Emilia Romagna – were beaches. By 1930, this estate established itself 300 meters up in this excellent terroir. It is also home to La Stoppa and Massimilliano Croci who are close with the estates next generation winemaker, Elisabetta. On the front of her website, it says, "From the distinctiveness of our territory, from the love for our vineyards, from our rural culture, Our wines are born spontaneously.”

Elisabetta is the kind of winemaker who is cultivating an environment on her farm, of which the wine is but one product. Biodynamics, for her, is really about cultivating nature to its most contented state. Her grapevines, the wheat fields, the grasses, the 4-million-old fossilized oyster shells... are all in a kind of harmony that I identify so strongly with her wines, and serve as proof of the concept of terroir in wine - even sparkling wine, which is of course her speciality and a typicality of the region. Elisabetta makes wine the very same way her grandfather and father have, because that's what fits best in this magnificent place. There's a joy and levity to these wines that seems to come from their lighthearted provenance. It's incredibly difficult work that Elisabetta does, but the result is clear in the happiness of her product.