Il Cascinone

In 1999, thanks to the good intuition of Claudio's father, Livio Manera, Araldica purchased one of the jewels of the Monferrato area, the Azienda Agricola Il Cascinone.

Situated on one of the most beautiful hills in the Monferrato, the Cascinone estate comprises 102 hectares that are destined to become vineyards of great distinction and character. By 2005 a full 70 hectares will have been reclaimed and be in full production.

Built in the 1920’s and operational up until 1994, Cascinone’s vineyards were hard to maintain because of the steepness of the slopes and over the last 20 years many vines were lost. Now, with modern equipment and tractors it is possible to make these steep slopes productive again and the aim is to restore the old vineyards so that the estate can return to how it was over 50 years ago. All harvesting will still be carried out by hand and the grapes, as now, used in the production of our Poderi Alasia range.

As well as this restoration and expansion of the estate’s vineyards, Il Cascinone itself will be subject to extensive renovation and you will find more information on the plans for the winery in the section of the web site on Our Wineries.

Nearly all the grapes from Cascinone are currently used in our Poderi Alasia range. For example, the wine LuceMonaca, so called because the Barbera grapes are grown on a block of the estate called Luce - the Italian word for 'light', because the vineyard receives sunlight from dawn until dusk - and the Merlot and Cabernet grapes on a block called Monaca. In fact, most of the vines at Cascinone receive light for most of the day and these southwest facing slopes are used to grow Barbera, Merlot and Cabernet grapes. The slopes that do receive less light, those that face northeast, give fresher growing conditions ideal for such aromatic varietals as Brachetto, Moscato as well as Sauvingnon and Pinot Noir.

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