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Growing Up in Hell

Eric Girardini for Vigna Ca’ Guicciardi

A journey between heaven and hell: a hell of blinding light and a heaven of softest snow. Eric Girardini, mountain guide and Salewa athlete, takes us to the very top, into the realm of light, so that we can see how Vigna Cà Guicciardi confronts the sun every day.

Hell is what you expect

It’s called “Inferno” (Hell). Because the vineyard extends along a steep slope which makes the life of the plants more complex and working on it more extreme. It’s called this because the temperatures are very high, especially in summer. It’s called “Inferno” and yet this vine has found here the ideal place for it to grow.
Its name is Ca’ Guicciardi.

The sun is nourishment.
The heat, an accomplice.

Due to a combination of various factors, the heat in this zone accumulates, is reinforced. All day long the vineyard is invaded by direct sunlight which beats down on the vines. Great white rocks sprout out of the soil, reflecting the light and absorbing the heat which is then released during the night. And, finally, there are little valleys and the highest stone walls in the Valtellina which stop the wind from getting in, making the heat even more intense.

What is hell for some isn’t for others. The steepness of the slope, the lack of wind, the heat and the sunlight do, in fact, affect the life of the vines but by helping the grapes ripen with extraordinary intensity and increased strength.

The importance of maturing in the mountains.

Human beings and plants are changed forever by what they experience in the mountains and the Vigna Cà Guicciardi is simply the proof: a Nebbiolo out of the ordinary, predominantly black fruit on the palate with undertones of aromatic spices and dense, warm and round tannins to the point of being almost sweet.

Ready to drink after ageing for two years of which one in oak barrels. Vigna Ca’ Guicciardi is nothing more than the sum of all the challenges it faces.
A wine forged out of the light.

Vigne di montagnaa

Ca’ Guicciardi

SOLE

Eric Girardini

Born in Feltre in the shadow of the Dolomites, Eric Giardini started skiing when he was 3. Since then he has continued to ski passionately, moving off-piste, in search of increasingly open spaces. He has taken on the steepest descents of the Dolomites, pioneered new routes, gone down the slopes of Monte Rosa, Mont Blanc, the central Alps, Mt. Etna not counting the odd raid in the Lofoten Islands. He has been a mountain guide of the San Martino and Primero School of Mountaineering and Alpine Skiing since 2011 and a Salewa athlete since 2013.