Testalonga

Antonio Perrino is probably the first producer of this small denomination. In the municipality of Dolceacqua, where time seems to have stopped, almost all the inhabitants have a small parcel of vine and Antonio's is undoubtedly the oldest. Two hectares, a vineyard and a micro-cellar (7 barrels for the entire production) within the town summarize the Testalonga winery. The wine in the bottle, on the other hand, is the result of 50 harvests behind them, all lived differently, but all carried out with the same gestures and the same ideas. This is why we can now define Antonio Perrino as one of the most authentic producers of 'normal' wine in Italy.

Nino Perrino is a true forerunner, craftsman and garage owner. He began to harvest the grapes in 1961 in his own vineyards located on the terraces of the Dolceacqua hills, in the Arcagna and Casiglian areas, helping his parents. His mother Mariuccia would follow him until 2011. A few years later his niece Erica joined him in the countryside and the cellar, abandoning his previous occupation to devote himself full time to working alongside his uncle. In 50 years of harvests Nino "Testalonga" Perrino has kept his vision and his way of working has not changed: care of his old vines only and exclusively by hand, treatments only in powdered sulfur, pressing of the whole grapes with his feet (with all stalks), spontaneous fermentation without temperature control and ageing of the wines for at least one year in old 500-liter barrels before bottling. No technology, no protocol, no discipline (it was already "organic" before the term was invented ..). Only five barrels of Rossese and three barrels of Vermentino kept in his cellar, a garage in the village of Dolceacqua where he has vinified and bottled his own wine for more than half a century without ever changing a gesture. An authentic and proud man, undoubtedly the greatest interpreter of Rossese and Vermentino that grow in the Riviera di Ponente.