Us, the cellar and the family
“It all began with my father Riccardo, a disciplined and resolute man, reserved in the way that so many of us from Liguria often are, and, despite being remembered as a traditionalist, I know that he was really a revolutionary. He began vinifying and bottling Pigato made with grapes from the family’s historical vineyards in Ranzo, in the early 1970s. He was the first in the village to do so and his decision to make this wine wasn’t shared by many others at the time. My maternal grandfather, however, did support him, right from the start, planting new vineyards in Ortovero. His name was Virginio Capello and he was a farmer with a refined outlook and modern approach. He was a visionary – having wanted to open an ice-cream parlour in Constantinople in the 1920s – and always believed in Pigato. I have fond memories of him from when I was a little girl, already old and very thin, sitting on the slate steps, silently looking out over the vines planted all around, almost as if to draw them to him in an embrace.
The years went by and my sister Annamaria and I went off to university in Genoa. Mum and dad had imagined a different future for us, a “more prestigious” career, far away from the valley and the vineyards lost amongst the woods and that bare little cellar situated under the road. However…”
Francesca Bruna
Francesca
I see to the administration of the winery: paperwork, emails, customers, distributors and importers. I organise the activities that take place in the cellar and also the bottling of the wines. I’m a mechanical engineer with a passion for numbers and the office is my realm.
Roberto
Roberto is my husband. He spends all his time in the vineyards, which are his real home. He works and carries out experiments in the cellar, designs our labels and often delivers our wines. He’s a “creative” who loves what he does: a mine of information and a volcano of ideas and new projects.
Alessio
Alessio is my nephew and the future of the winery. He works in the vineyards and the cellar but, just like the rest of us, he pitches in and does whatever is needed. His uncle often takes him to wine tastings. He learns a lot from us but also teaches us to be contemporary. He demands a lot from himself.
Ardian ed Elvis
Ardian and Elvis have been with us for years, always on the tractor, in the vineyards and among the vats of wine, with experience and enthusiasm. They are an essential part of Azienda Agricola Bruna and this is exactly the way they feel.
