Villa Guelpa
background
Villa Guelpa is a family home and wine cellar, together with vineyards in Alto Piemonte ... it is the family’s Passion.
The project is bold and courageous with strong links to the past but with hopes and ambitions for the future, inspired by the incredible variety of soils and intriguing variations that Nebbiolo assumes even when the vineyards are separated by a few meters.
Villa Guelpa itself was built in Lessona in the late 1800s, adjacent to the hillside vineyard and on the banks of the Strona stream, It was sold, renovated and enlarged in the 1930s as the manor house of an important textile factory, now we continue its future with wine production.
the vineyards
The geological history of Alto Piemonte is incredible: it all started when, about 300 million years ago, there was only one single continent, the Pangea which was dotted with numerous huge volcanoes. One of them, geographically located near to us in Valsesia, exploded with a power greater than 250 atomic bombs. The immense volcano became extinct and about 150 million years ago when the mountain range of the Alps formed from the fracture and division of continents, the Supervulcano of Valsesia bent and arranged itself horizontally making visible on the surface what was once the internal layers of the volcano.
The legacy left is that of some very rare, very acidic soils, totally devoid of limestone, which, spread over the whole territory of Alto Piemonte, range from the alluvial pebbles of the hills of Roppolo near Lake Viverone, to the siliceous sands of Mottalciata, to the very ancient soils of Lessona, to the volcanic porphyry of Bramaterra and again to the more recent alluvial soils, with a sandy texture, of Sizzano. This is all in an area with a particularly favorable, mild climatic characteristics which are characterised by excellent diurnal temperature differences between day and night. There is a higher than average rainfall and excellent both direct and diffused sunlight because here we are at a quite high Latitude.
THE CELLAR
Villa Guelpa makes wine in a small but historic cellar in the beating heart of the new ‘Alto Piedmonte’ Renaissance located in Lessona. They use old concrete tanks for young wines and Slavonian oak barrels for aging wines made only from our vineyards.
As far as Sizzano is concerned, it was the great statesman Camillo Benso Conte di Cavour, who in addition to being one of the greatest strategists of the (Italian unification) Risorgimento was also owner of vast land estates, farms, businessman as well as Minister of Agriculture and Prime Minister in the mid-nineteenth century, who wrote the famous letter in which he said: "I naively confess that your excellent Sizzano wine has almost convinced me of the possibility of making luxury wines in Piedmont. This wine possesses in a high degree, what the quality of the wines of France and the bouquet is generally lacking in our own. The bouquet of Sizzano does not resemble that of Bordeaux, but rather the bouquet of Burgundy, which for certain delicious qualities such as Clos-Vougeot and Romanet, enjoys the first fruits on all the wines of France, so it is now proven that the Novarese hills can compete with the Burgundy hills, and that to win the fight you only need owners who he diligent the manufacture of wine and rich and elegant gluttons who establish their reputation ".
In 1870, after the capture of Rome, it was with a Lessona that he toasted the Unification of Italy celebrating the glories of Nebbiolo over other Piedmontese and northern Italian grape varieties.
The wine
lessona DOC
Varietal: 100% Nebbiolo
Area: Vineyards in Lessona, Alto Piemonte.
Vineyards: 22 year old vines. Southern exposure. 4500 plants per hectare
Training: Guyot
Altitude: 340masl
Soil: Sands, gravel, and kaolinic clays from alterations of Permian volcanoes
Harvest: By hand in mid October
Vinification: De-stemming and soft crushing, spontaneous fermentation, 16 days maceration on skins
Aging: 24 months in Slavonian Bottega di revere followed by bottle aging
ABV: 13.5%
sizzano doc
Varietal: 70% Nebbiolo, 30% Vespolina and Uva Rara
Area: Vineyards in Sizzano, Alto Piemonte.
Vineyards: South, South Western exposure. 4500 plants per hectare
Training: Guyot
Altitude: 290masl
Soil: Coarse, terraced pebble floods forming the plateaus with reduced sand levels and delta-type cross stratification
Harvest: By hand in mid October
Vinification: De-stemming and soft crushing, spontaneous fermentation, 16 days maceration on skins
Aging: 24 months in 20hl oak tonneau and subsequent bottle aging
ABV: 13.5%
boca doc
Varietal: 90% Nebbiolo, 10% Vespolina
Area: Vineyards in Boca, Alto Piemonte.
Vineyards: 18 year old vines. Southern exposure. 3500 plants per hectare
Training: Guyot
Altitude: 350masl
Soil: Porphyr gravel of volcanic origin. A pink color and full of minerals.
Harvest: By hand in mid October
Vinification: De-stemming and soft crushing, spontaneous fermentation, 16 days maceration on skins
Aging: 31 months in Slavonian oak 1000lt and subsequent bottle aging
ABV: 13.5%
longitudine 8.26
colline novaresi nebbiolo doc
Varietal: 100% Nebbiolo
Area: Alto Piemonte.
Vineyards: 25 year old vines. Southeastern exposure. 4500 plants per hectare
Training: Guyot
Altitude: 300masl
Soil: Terraced pebble
Harvest: By hand in mid October
Vinification: De-stemming and soft crushing, spontaneous fermentation, 16 days maceration on skins
Aging: 12 months inclement tanks and subsequent bottle aging
ABV: 13.5%
Production: 4,000 bottles