Vigna Terre Rosse – Saluzzo 
Pelaverga is a rare, arcane red-berry variety native of Piedmont, once supposed to possess aphrodisiac powers because of its exotic, pungent perfume… Nowadays, only a handful of nostalgic producers in the communes of Saluzzo and Verduno keep alive the tradition of this ancestral, heirloom light-bodied red. Pelaverga is first mentioned in the XVI century, when Andrea Bacci and Sante Lancerio, famed sommeliers of the Renaissance epoch, praised the ‘delicate mouthfeel and mesmerizing aromas’ common to the Pelaverga wines produced at the time in Piedmont.
Pope Julius II was especially found of Pelaverga from Saluzzo / Piedmont, so much so that Giovanni Andrea Saluzzo di Castellar, marquis of Saluzzo, reports in his memoires the frequent wine shipment to the Vatican court! A dozen of passionate, nostalgic vintners keep cultivating Pelaverga these days, in Saluzzo and Verduno, the two Piedmontese districts traditionally planted with Pelaverga.
While Verduno is part of the Barolo appellation and yields a full-bodied, high-alcohol, tannic style of Pelaverga, the tiny village of Saluzzo – located at the foothills of the Alps bordering on France – produces a feminine, delicate type of Pelaverga, thanks to a cooler climate and poor, stony mountain soils. Vigna Terre Rosse Pelaverga comes from Saluzzo and the label reports the related Colline Saluzzesi Doc appellation.
Natale Fontan-Gole’, owner of Vigna Terre Rosse (www.vignaterrerosse.it), is a self-made grape-grower and winemaker. After working as a homeopathic doctor for over 30 years, in 1991 Natale decided to bring back to production the family vineyards in Saluzzo, located on a hilltop covered with old Pelaverga vines. Natale transferred his homeopathic faith to viticulture! The Vigna Terre Rosse vineyard is managed with organic methods, and Natale applies his own homeopathic preparations and tisanes to the vines when required, to treat the classic seasonal vine diseases like peronospora and oidium.
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