Pecorino Don Carlino De Fermo 2021

Stefano is first of all a curious wine lover. He was born and grew up in Bologna, the cradle of food, wine and history that have always been part of his DNA and that of the city.

At the age of 12 he buys his first bottle of wine, just to smell it he says. Then from the age of 16 he starts to taste and then he doesn't stop any more, just turning Piedmont, Tuscany and all the suitable areas of the peninsula and not only.

After studying Law and the continuous search for his main passions: history and wine, in 2001 he met, still in Bologna, the person who changed his life: Eloisa, born in Abruzzo, who would become his wife a few years later.

The two continue to visit vineyards in Italy and France, but never in the vineyard that Eloisa's parents have in Loreto Aprutino, until in autumn 2007, after the birth of their first child, Stefano's wife asks him if he would like to visit the company and the 16,5 hectares of his parents' vineyard, which is located in the Abruzzo hinterland, between the Adriatic Sea and the southernmost glacier of the continent.

From that moment that place enters Stefano's heart and never leaves him. The following year, in agreement with the family, he started to manage one hectare of vineyard, helped by a gentleman who lived in the property's house.

After two years of ups and downs with the elderly gentleman, Stefano discovers that inside the house there is a cellar of over 200 years that is perfect to work with the minimum impact on the grapes of the property.

So in 2010 he began to make wine from the first 50 quintals of Montepulciano grapes in the newly found cellar. Then followed Chardonnay (present in Abruzzo since 1926, one of the oldest in Italy), Cerasuolo (white vinification of Montepulciano) and Pecorino in 2013.

No wine in the cellar undergoes filtration, no clarification, no stabilization, only racking. The sulphur content ranges from 5mg/l to 50mg/l of total depending on the label and vintage. But its commitment since 2013 has expanded, in fact it manages the entire agricultural world of the company (olive trees, legumes, ancient cereals).

The cultivation of wheat that "serves life" for quality flours, bread and pasta (they work with and for the supply chain of Forno Brisa in Bologna and Davide Longoni in Milan).

Stefano says he is a link in a virtuous chain and that being part of the circular farming world makes him happy and proud every day to have found a home here in Loreto Aprutino.

His passion, which can be read between these lines, can be found strongly in the company's wines and biodynamic products. 

A practical vision that leads De Fermo to talk about agricultural wine and living wine: agricultural because it is made by farmers, alive because it is intact. Nothing added, nothing taken away. Wine in fact, like us, lives and transforms over time, in its individuality from bottle to bottle.

Agronomic technique, country work, manual practices, spirituality, education, observation, listening, dialogue, silence: these are the elements that characterise De Fermo's research, form and substance.