Being a cooperative winery: a story of people, the local territory and wine

The cooperative model places winegrowers and the survival of their farms before the production of wine itself. Each member cultivates independently and delivers the full harvest to the cooperative, which manages vinification, maturation, bottling and sales.

Ownership is collective. Vineyard size and invested capital do not alter voting power: each of the approximately 200 members has one vote. Mutuality directs facilities, expertise and commercial opportunities toward the whole membership rather than a small investor group.

Vinchio Vaglio arose in 1959 because small growers handling a perishable crop had little power against buyers. The 19 founders shared investments, infrastructure and expertise to correct that imbalance. The cooperative now cultivates over 550 hectares and annually produces more than one million bottles and one million Bag-in-Boxes.

Its broader contribution includes keeping slopes under cultivation, limiting rural abandonment and preserving biodiversity and cultural knowledge. Quality rests on vineyard care, grape selection, shared agronomic and oenological standards and sensitive interpretation of the territory. The work represented by each bottle is therefore collective: families, generations, inherited skills and shared decisions are brought together in a single agricultural project.