Barone Cornacchia

Feudal origins: 1488 and 1577

In 1488, the nobleman Giovanni Cornacchia acquired the fiefs of Poggio a Varano, Poggio de la Casa Nova, Torri and Torano Nuovo with the royal assent of Ferdinand I of Aragon, King of Naples. Casanova extended through the Torri area of Torano Nuovo, where the family estate remains based.

In 1577, Martino, Vizzarro and Pompeo Cornacchia obtained royal assent to acquire the fiefs of Ripa di S. Maria a Bolignano, Quatrelle and S. Croce. The family received the title of baron and the duties attached to it. Its lands lay around the Fortress of Civitella, in the border territory of the Bourbon Kingdom. Barone Cornacchia uses 1577 as the principal heritage date of its family tradition.

First generation: 1861

After the fall of Bourbon rule and the surrender of the Fortress of Civitella in 1861, Berardo Cornacchia (1838–1919) withdrew with his family to the hunting reserve in the Casa Nova fief, at Torri di Torano Nuovo. Viticulture already formed part of life on the fief, but wine was made for the individual families’ own consumption rather than as a developed commercial activity.

Second generation: Baron Filippo Vizzarro Cornacchia, 1870–1944

Baron Filippo Vizzarro Cornacchia became the first family member to devote himself specifically to viticulture. He worked with selections of the already widespread Montepulciano and, following the destructive phylloxera infestation, replanted all the vineyards on resistant American rootstocks. This intervention substantially increased production and allowed wine to be commercialised in local taverns and in nearby Teramo.

He began presenting the family wine at the Fiera di San Martino in Nereto. Buyers from Piedmont purchased Montepulciano there for blending, principally with Dolcetto and also with Nebbiolo and Barbera. Barrels were carried by farm wagon to the railway station at Tortoreto. During the 1920s, Filippo Vizzarro continued making, selling and shipping wine by rail and received prizes for it. In 1932 and 1933, his Montepulciano and Trebbiano d’Abruzzo were awarded prizes at the Fiera del Levante. War subsequently brought the activity to a halt.

Third generation: Alessandro Cornacchia, 1904–1992

Alessandro Cornacchia trained as a doctor in Rome but left a promising medical career to manage the family estate. His medical work helped him develop a close familiarity with the surrounding territory, while his management combined agricultural knowledge with an innovative business outlook.

Through relationships with the Italian politicians Remo Gaspari and Lorenzo Natali, Alessandro helped establish the Torri Cooperative in 1966 and became its first chairman. He regarded collective organisation as the appropriate commercial solution at a time when the sector emphasised volume over quality and part of the production was sold for alcohol distillation.

Alessandro anticipated the end of sharecropping by creating a structured agricultural enterprise and transferring its workers to fixed salaries through dialogue and agreement, without union conflict. He also began bottling both Montepulciano and Trebbiano. Earlier vinification had taken place in very large open vats, fermenting the wine together with its skins. Bottles preserved from his period later became an important reference for the fifth generation.

Clone selection and the fourth generation: 1969–2010

In 1969, the Montepulciano R/7 Biotipo Teramano clone was selected from a Cornacchia family vineyard. Until 2002, it remained one of the very few Montepulciano clones cultivated throughout Abruzzo.

After completing military service, Piero Cornacchia took responsibility in 1972 for an indebted estate with limited resources. He renewed and enlarged it, replanted vineyards, adopted new technology and purchased equipment for vinification and ageing. During the 1970s and 1980s, the business entered European and American markets; in the 1990s, it expanded particularly into Japan. Between 1990 and 2010, Piero enlarged both the property and its vineyard holdings by buying further land.

A nearby property at Campodino called Il Cupo was acquired with an existing, well-exposed hillside vineyard, which the family replanted to Montepulciano. Its name became the basis for Colle Cupo. When the Controguerra DOC emerged in 1996 and permitted international varieties, the family planted Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. The Cabernet material was acquired in France and selected for a softer, less overtly herbaceous expression in combination with Montepulciano and a smaller component of Merlot.

At the end of the 1990s, the family created Vizzarro in connection with the recognition of Colline Teramane DOCG, the outcome of work by a group of local producers to promote the northern Abruzzo territory. The name honours Baron Filippo Vizzarro Cornacchia. Vizzarro—or Bizzarro, reflecting the historical interchange of the letters B and V—had appeared in the family from Alessandro Vizzarro Cornacchia, son of Giovanni, through Filippo Vizzarro Cornacchia.

New native-variety plantings: early 2000s–2006

The family planted Pecorino in the early 2000s and began producing it in 2006. In the same year, Passerina was introduced as a single-variety wine; it had previously formed approximately 15% of the estate’s Trebbiano blend. The fifth generation subsequently increased Passerina production while continuing to develop Pecorino as a varietal wine.

Fifth generation: 2016

Filippo and Caterina Cornacchia had already worked in the family business for more than ten years when their father transferred ownership to them in 2016. They founded Società Agricola Barone Cornacchia di Filippo e Caterina Cornacchia ss and became the fifth generation responsible for the estate.

Their programme combines inherited practices with contemporary technology. They continued and tightened the estate’s organic approach, maintained certification and added vegan certification for the white and rosé wines. Their work has focused on greater elegance and precision, clearer expression of the fruit grown on the estate’s hills, and greater balance in Montepulciano and Cerasuolo, including refinement of Montepulciano’s forceful tannins.

Recovery of an earlier method: 2019

In 2019, old bottles inherited from Alessandro inspired Filippo and Caterina to revisit the family’s earlier approach to skin-fermented Trebbiano. Grapes from the single vineyard Il Lago were macerated with their skins for more than 30 days, echoing the open-vat methods of earlier generations while interpreting them through exclusive use of stainless steel. The inaugural lot fermented spontaneously with indigenous Trebbiano yeasts, was separated from the skins by gentle pressing in mid-October 2019 and remained on its lees in stainless steel for 12 months, with frequent bâtonnage. It was bottled in December 2020, aged in bottle until June 2021 and released in July 2021.

The entire wine range comes from estate-grown grapes. Harvesting is manual so that selection can begin directly on the vine, and selected grapes are transferred immediately to the winery to protect fruit quality. The estate links quality to gradient, altitude and low-yield cultivation.

Organic viticulture excludes synthetic fertilisers, herbicides, pesticides and fungicides. Plant- and mineral-based preparations are used against pests and disease, to support soil health and to improve nutrient availability. Soil vitality is treated as fundamental to vine nutrition, requiring close observation of seasonal development and intervention when the plants need it.

Wild vegetation is retained throughout the vineyards rather than eliminating all spontaneous ground cover. The estate presents this growth as a means of keeping the soil and root environment able to “breathe.” Transhumance through the vineyards and wild herbs also form part of its depiction of vineyard biodiversity.

Documented blocks use simple curtain rows with spur-pruned cordons. Recorded densities range from approximately 3,400 to 4,500 vines/ha. Recorded yields range from 80 to 110 quintals/ha, depending on the vineyard and intended production. White varieties are generally harvested from the first half to the middle of September, while Montepulciano examples extend into the middle or second half of October. Bunch selection accompanies the manual harvest in individually documented parcels.

The vineyards and wines are certified organic. Vegan certification has also been added for the white and rosé wines; the certification organisation and initial certification dates are not identified.

All wines are produced from grapes grown by the estate. The harvest is carried out by hand, with selection on the plant, followed by immediate transport to the winery. Modern equipment is used with the stated aim of preserving fruit quality and potential while continuing practices inherited through the family.

The cellar works with temperature-controlled stainless-steel tanks, submerged-cap vessels, soft presses, 16 hl amphorae, 30 hl Slavonian oak casks, French-oak tonneaux and American-oak barriques. Techniques represented across current production include destemming, crushing, gentle pressing, cold skin contact, fermentation with skins, submerged-cap maceration, spontaneous fermentation, lees ageing, bâtonnage, secondary fermentation in autoclave and maturation in bottle.

Spontaneous fermentation is used in several current bottlings. One documented method prepares a pied de cuve five to seven days before harvest; other work relies directly on indigenous yeasts. White-wine work can include gentle pressing, temperature-controlled fermentation at 16–18°C and two months or more on the lees with weekly resuspension. Red-wine work may involve skin maceration in stainless steel followed by ageing in steel, large Slavonian casks, French tonneaux, American barriques or amphora.

The 2019 revival of skin-macerated Trebbiano provides the most complete account of a single cellar process tied to family history. Trebbiano from Il Lago was crushed and destemmed, then fermented spontaneously with indigenous yeasts and remained with the skins for 32 days in stainless steel at 16–18°C. In mid-October, the wine was racked and the skins gently pressed. It then remained on its lees in stainless steel for 12 months, with frequent bâtonnage, before bottling and a further six months of bottle maturation.

Cellar hot water is generated by a biomass boiler fuelled with residues from pruning, destemming, crushing and related operations.

The fifth generation defines its work as a continuation of the path established by its father and earlier generations, updated with the modernity it considers natural to a new generation. Its priorities include elegance, precision and a clearer expression of the fruit produced by the estate’s hills. For Montepulciano and Cerasuolo, the goal includes refining intensity and balance, moderating forceful tannins and revealing characteristics attributed to the estate’s land.

Piero Cornacchia summarised the family inheritance as a passion for viticulture and love of the land, values learned from his father and entrusted to his children. The proverb Multa paucis—“to say much with few words”—was used by Piero to teach Filippo and Caterina to obtain the most from limited resources. Another inherited family phrase, La vite ti dà vita—“the vine gives you life”—is associated with their great-grandfather Filippo.

Organic farming and environmental sustainability are treated as connected responsibilities. Living soil, seasonal attentiveness and restrained inputs underpin the vineyard approach. Solar panels have operated on the winery roof for more than a decade. Lighter bottles were selected for the Casanova range to reduce glass, production energy, transport demand and disposal impacts. A biomass boiler converts pruning, destemming and crushing residues into heat for cellar-cleaning water.

Tradition is treated as a working reference rather than a fixed recipe. The 2019 return to long skin contact for Trebbiano drew on inherited bottles and memories of older open-vat fermentation, while replacing the historic vessel with stainless steel. This approach preserves a link with earlier family practice while allowing the current generation to make its own technical interpretation.