Cardeto

Origins: 1949

The Cooperativa Vitivinicola per la zona di Orvieto, abbreviated CO.VI.O., was established on 30 August 1949. One of the older wine cooperatives in central Italy, it grew out of a founding initiative involving the Associazione dell’Agricoltura and 13 producers. Its first premises stood in Viale I Maggio at Orvieto Scalo and were enlarged several times as the organisation developed.

Recognition and expansion: 1971–1991

In 1971, white Orvieto wine received Denominazione di Origine Controllata recognition by decree of the President of the Italian Republic. Its production regulations were approved in the same year and subsequently amended. The resulting impetus to local viticulture was followed in 1975 by the cooperative’s first major expansion: a new storage facility was built in the hamlet of Sferracavallo.

The cooperative began producing its first own-brand bottles in 1987, using a mobile bottling plant. During the following years it constructed a new vinification and storage cellar and installed its first small permanent bottling line. The new building at Sferracavallo was completed, inaugurated and placed in operation in 1991.

Bottled-wine development: 1998–2002

Arciato’s inaugural vintage was 1998. It was conceived to mark the cooperative’s 50th anniversary and to create a Cabernet Sauvignon-based “Super Umbrian.”

Rosso Orvietano received DOC recognition in 2002. The denomination drew upon a local tradition of producing red wine around the Orvieto cliff that extended back to the Middle Ages, particularly in estates once held by the Della Greca family. That family supplied the historical reference for Nero della Greca, one of Cardèto’s leading wines.

The modern winery and the Cardèto name: 2004–2005

A further expansion was completed in 2004, adding a bottling hall, warehouses and a barrel cellar. The enlarged wine complex covered 12,000 m². Its bottling plant, operated by four staff members, was designed for an output of 6,000 bottles per hour.

In 2005, CO.VI.O. adopted the name Cantina Cardèto. The name refers to the locality of the new winery and derives from the former practice of carding hemp cultivated near the Paglia river.

A wholly controlled commercial subsidiary, Picco d’Umbria Srl, was also created in 2005 to diversify the offer with wines from other Italian regions, private-label production and third-party bottling services.

Seventieth anniversary and organic range: 2019–2020

On 30 August 2019, Cantina Cardèto marked 70 years of production and work on behalf of Orvieto wine. The anniversary brought the launch of Cardèto Vintage, a range intended to represent the accumulated culture, traditions and knowledge of the cooperative’s members and their families. Historical labels were redesigned around traces of medieval symbols for four selected wines: the reds Nero della Greca and Arciato and the whites Febeo and Colbadia.

The word “Vintage” was chosen for its associations with the Latin vindenia—harvest—as well as retro labels in English usage and fine wine in French usage. In April 2020, the cooperative introduced its first two organic wines as part of a broader environmental eco-sustainability programme encompassing the production chain.