Iuli Nino

Family roots and the old cascina

Cascina Iuli occupies an old agricultural complex in Montaldo di Cerrina. The building is described as a former sixteenth-century cascina, approximately 500 years old, once inhabited by farming families who worked for the nobles living in the adjoining palazzo. Local elders still call the property La Corte, a name associated with its large central courtyard and the importance traditionally attributed to the building.

Wine was part of family life before Cascina Iuli became Fabrizio Iuli’s independent project. His grandfather, Gioacchino Natale, known locally as Natalin, prepared vineyard ground by hand and made wine served in the family’s Osteria Universo. Natalino planted Barbera on the local slopes from 1930. Fabrizio grew up moving among the tables of the osteria and later worked in the countryside beside his father. The family setting, respect for earlier generations and everyday connection between wine, food and conviviality became foundations of his approach.

The personal project in the late 1990s

During winters, when farm work permitted, Fabrizio travelled extensively, particularly in South America. These journeys reinforced an outlook in which human relationships, observation and hospitality were as important as technical winemaking. His attachment to Cerrina Monferrato and its agricultural inheritance led him to begin an independent production path there in the late 1990s, when locally rooted, grower-led viticulture was out of step with the dominant preference for concentrated wines made according to international models.

The early period involved mistakes as Fabrizio worked out an approach of his own. Encounters with growers including Flavio Basilicata and Silvana Forte of Le Due Terre encouraged him to think independently and pursue wines that emphasized the character of his territory.

In 1999 he planted one hectare of Pinot Nero at Arioli, motivated by a longstanding interest in Burgundy and by the challenge of interpreting the variety in Monferrato. That year he also removed the difficult-to-access vineyard associated with Natalin’s favourite local variety because it could not readily be reached by tractor for treatments.

Expansion and recovery of local varieties

Fabrizio retained the family land and vines, then expanded the original holding to approximately 30 hectares. Rather than consolidating production around a single convenient block, Cascina Iuli developed vineyards in distinct local microzones and continued working with old vineyards. Barbera remained the dominant variety, joined by Grignolino, Nebbiolo and Pinot Nero.

The search through Piemonte’s viticultural past subsequently brought two nearly abandoned varieties into the range: the red Slarina and the white Baratuciat. A Slarina block at Arian was planted in 2013. Baratuciat was planted at Scandoletto in 2015; its first crop became the 2018 vintage, released in 2019. It was the first white variety planted by the estate.

The old Barbera vines planted by Natalino from 1930 were reluctantly removed in 2016. In the same year Fabrizio replanted his grandfather’s favourite variety on the hillside where Natalin had established his first vineyard. In 2017 he supplemented it by renting an old organic vineyard. The resulting wine preserved Natalino’s name and a family method based on fermentation and maturation in cement followed by bottling under a favourable late-spring moon.

Restoration and diversification of the cascina

In 2013 the family restored the old hayloft above one of the cellars as an independent self-catering apartment. The intervention retained the historic walls and beams while adding a kitchen, bathroom and sleeping facilities. Other haylofts were renovated to enlarge the winery and create a tasting room, while the house was adapted for contemporary family life without moving its historic walls or altering the fundamental distribution of the rooms.

Education and the next generation

Fabrizio and his wife, Summer Wolff, live at the cascina with their sons Gioacchino Jason and Ettore Samuel, described as the fifth generation of Fabrizio’s family born there. In 2020, when their elder son reached school age, Summer began a school in the woods so that children could continue learning in close contact with nature. Fabrizio, Summer and the McCullough family founded the Village Forest School, initially with a classroom in a Mongolian-style yurt.

The school developed into a bilingual, multicultural project combining Waldorf/Steiner and Montessori influences. It grew to four yurts and 47 children from 14 countries. Former tasting-room spaces in the cascina became a kitchen and refectory. Children take part in growing and harvesting vegetables and fruit and collecting eggs, while lessons combine academic work with woodland excursions, observation of nature, agriculture, art and practical activities.

Cascina Iuli works approximately 30 hectares of land, maintaining it with the stated aim of keeping the soil clean and healthy and passing it to later generations in at least as good a condition as it was received. Fifteen hectares of vineyards are in production, nine of them owned.

The estate follows a natural-viticulture approach and values old vineyards rather than replacing them with a single consolidated planting. One old vineyard rented in 2017 is described as organic, although no certification body or estate-wide certification status is given.

Yields are deliberately low. Depending on the block, stated yields range from 0.8 to 1.5 kg per vine, with planting densities between 3,000 and 5,000 vines/ha. Low production per vine is intended to build aromatic complexity and support structure, body and finesse.

Woodland surrounding the vineyard amphitheatre is retained as a fundamental reservoir of biodiversity. Agricultural land also supports the Village Forest School: children participate in growing and harvesting vegetables and fruit and collecting eggs, linking the cultivated estate with environmental education.

Fabrizio Iuli works within a Piedmontese tradition centred on cement and wood. The winery’s objective is to translate its white calcareous-clay soils and their mineral character into wines that remain light on their feet, fresh, vibrant, precise and easy to drink without becoming simple.

Vinifications are described as delicate, without aggressive extraction or excessive enological manipulation. Cement is the principal cellar material, while wood is used where appropriate. The family method preserved through the Natalin bottling involves fermentation and maturation entirely in cement, followed by bottling in late spring under a favourable moon, echoing Gioacchino Natale’s practice.

The broader intention is not to standardize the wines into a fixed technical model. Winemaking is treated as a continuation of agricultural work, with enough restraint to retain the identity of the place, the variety and the vintage.

Cascina Iuli’s central purpose is to enhance its part of Monferrato while keeping approximately 30 hectares of soil clean and healthy. The long-term aim is to leave future generations at least what the family received and, where possible, to improve it.

Fabrizio’s approach joins respect for earlier generations with curiosity and openness acquired through travel. Agriculture is understood not only as wine production but as a human activity built around listening, observation, food and conviviality. Wine should be drunk in unhurried sips, with something to eat, and should encourage human connection.

The estate favours the continuity of local agricultural culture over standardized taste. Old Barbera vineyards, individual microzones and recovered Piemonte varieties connect contemporary work with the region’s viticultural past. Fabrizio has also declined institutional seals on his bottles, positioning the wines outside systems he associates with standardized production.

In stylistic terms, he seeks wines that are subtle rather than heavy: interesting and easy to drink, yet elegant, fresh, crisp and dynamic. The ideal is a direct, convivial wine whose pleasure does not depend on technical display or aggressive extraction.

The same long view informs the educational work at the cascina. Fertile, energetic soil is treated as a prerequisite for future harvests, while the Village Forest School prepares the next generation through daily contact with woodland, farming, creativity and shared responsibility.