caricature brigata

BRIGATA VERDERAME was born out of the friendship of winemakers united by the desire to preserve the heritage of peasant knowledge in wine.

The VERDERAME BRIGADE shares the memory of the magical and ancient recipe for preparing verdigris (copper water), so named for the color of the mixture.
Verderam, no longer in use today, was for hundreds of years the only means of preserving vines from downy mildew.

BRIGATA VERDERAME preserves in its wines the memory of peasant knowledge, a heritage of inestimable value, a legacy to be safeguarded in order to maintain the vital continuity between past and future. The merry crew, without a captain, is a child of the “peasant community” that has always been rich in hospitality, where families supported each other through the exchange of help (labor) or product (barter), which gave strength to overcome hard times even to the weaker elements. The memory and experience of these moments of sharing and great humanity has united and cemented the spirit of the VERDERAME BRIGADE crew who, today as in the past, collaborate and exchange help at times such as pruning, harvesting, and winemaking.

Out of friendship and collaboration came the idea of gathering the wines under a common brand name, BRIGATA VERDERAME.

The winemakers of the BRIGATA VERDERAME share a common way of cultivating the vineyard and making wine: the crew says, “Our wines are made in the vineyard, little affects the winery where we give minimal help, favoring natural phenomena but without conditioning them.” The wines are linked by the love and craftsmanship of vineyard cultivation, attention to maintaining soil fertility, biodynamics and carefree conviviality. Their farms are closed-loop organic microcosms that apply the principles of Demeter-certified biodynamics:
– They maintain soil fertility through the use of mature manure from non-chain animal stalls.
– They sow plant essences in the vineyard in the fall, which are buried in late spring (green manure) in order to improve the fertility and biodiversity of the vineyard and at the same time encourage winter grazing and pollinating insects (bees).
– They return the plant residues of the vine: vine shoots, stems, grape seeds and skins to the soil, composted.
– They guard the biodiversity of the land (seeds, old fruits, non-clonal native vines), the precious legacy received from their grandparents.
– They prune the vine on waning moon days, when sap circulation is reduced and the vine closes the lymph vessels better and protects the cut part from rot and pests.
– They also raise animals on the farm for the production of organic matter for soil fertility.
– They do not poison the sap with systemic pesticides and use only cover products (copper and sulfur) that are not absorbed by the plant.
The biodynamic vineyard produces healthy, yeast-rich grapes that can ferment and restore the authentic flavors of the land to the wine. BRIGATA VERDERAME’s biodynamic wines draw from the bounty of ripe grapes, a time when the skins have a high population of indigenous yeasts, the strength to cope with winemaking that forgoes the help of selected yeasts and fermentation additives. BRIGATA VERDERAME wine is the wine of the countryside, biodynamic Demeter spontaneously fermented without sulfites, a clear and genuine expression of tradition, territory and vintage where any “defects” increase its complexity and sincerity.

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