Luca Ferraris Winery

---

About us

The Ferraris winery story began back in the nineteenth century when Luca’s great-grandfather Luigi emigrated to America during the gold rush. Striking gold, he sent the money back to his wife Teresa, giving her the chance to realize her dream. After her husband passed away in 1921, she bought the house in Via al Castello that, until recently, housed Luca’s winery. Two years later, Luca’s grandfather Martino purchased II Casot, at the time nothing more than a simple rural hut. Martino planted vines and bought barrels to make wine with his own grapes in his own cellar. He started by selling his wine to wholesalers in the area, then later began to increase his business by selling larger bottles to individuals traveling back and forth to Turin every week on horseback. Today on that land they have one of their most representative vineyards: Vigna del Casot. After Martino, Luca’s father decided to move to Turin, as did his peers due to Fiat’s industrialization, but he also decided to keep his passion for the vineyards alive by collecting and giving its grapes to the agricultural cooperative in the village. That continued every year until 1999, when Luca began working at the family business. He restored the old cellar and started to make wine from his vineyards. It was the turning point for the operation, and perhaps even for the Ruchè variety. In the area of the seven municipalities producing Ruchè, Luca was the first to thin vineyards to improve their quality. He wanted the company to specialize exclusively in high-quality production and also began to travel the world looking for new customers and markets. Today the Ferraris estate produces about 130,000 bottles of wine (about 50,000 of Ruchè) from 18 vineyards covering 25 hectares. Luca Ferraris agricola is the largest family owned agricultural company in the seven municipalities of the Ruchè-growing region.

The Winery

The new Ferraris winery was built in 2009 in order to switch to a more modern winery. Despite the global economic climate, the company was growing rapidly, thanks mainly to the increasing popularity of Ruchè. The building, 1,000 square meters wide and three stories high, is on the main road between Asti and Castagnole Monferrato. The cellar and storage room are underground, where the temperature and humidity are constant year-round. The ground floor is where all production, from pressing to bottling, takes place. Advanced machinery allows Ferraris to produce the best possible wines without interfering with their natural characteristics. This is possible only through the combination of modern technology and the knowledge of old winemakers.

The Museum

The museum is located inside the historic cellar. Inside the museum, visitors can admire very old tools used in both vineyards and wineries. It also has a spectacular hand-dug cave (typical of the time) where the family’s oldest bottles of wine have rested for decades. It’s exactly that kind of cellar, together with the spectacular vineyards, that make the Monferrato area a UNESCO World Heritage site.