Podere San Martino

In 1978, when most of Monferrato was abandoning its vineyards for factory work in Turin, Dario Ferretti walked the opposite direction. He left a secure job in the city and returned to his family's land in the hills — eight hectares of neglected vines and a crumbling cascina. Everyone thought he was mad. He may have been.

Dario was organic before organic was fashionable. He refused chemicals not from ideology but from stubbornness — his grandfather hadn't used them, and the wines had been magnificent. He hand-harvests everything, ferments with native yeasts, and ages in concrete and old oak. His Barbera d'Asti is dark, concentrated, and layered — a revelation for anyone who thinks Barbera is just a simple table wine.

Now in his seventies, Dario has been joined by his daughter Chiara, who returned from working harvests in Burgundy and New Zealand. She brings new energy without changing the philosophy. If anything, the wines have become even more precise. Podere San Martino remains one of Monferrato's best-kept secrets — an estate that proves this often-overlooked appellation can produce wines of extraordinary depth.