Matteo Correggia inherited his father’s lands and company in 1985, when he was 23 years old; at the time the booming of the wine production was still far away. On the left side of the Tanaro river people cultivated fruit and vegetables and the vineyards products were intended for family consumption. Matteo was a young and passionate farmer, who decided to believe in his project: bet on a sustainable and high-quality wine production in a land which was still underestimated.
He faced with a cold hard reality, full of prejudices, but Matteo did not surrender and believed in the Roero and its ability to create great important wines and if today these wine are famous all over the world is thanks to his bravery and tenacy.
His avant-garde method is noticed by Roberto Voerzio and Elio Altare, who started to give him suggestions and follow his progresses. Matteo joined the circle of the “Barolo Boys”. He was the only one who was not a “pure barolo producer” (barolista) able to create elegant and floral Nebbiolo wines, sharing the same modern ideals. This is why he did not follow the traditional winemaking systems, which are not suitable for the Roero territory. In 1989 Matteo met Coco Cano, an Uruguayan artist who has always been in love with the Roero hills, who, from that moment on, realises the company labels.
Matteo Correggia was a real protagonist of the reborn of the Roero and he has inverted the local opinion tendency about the impossibility of the territory to give great wines. He show the Roero abilities first with the famous Brachetto Secco Anthos and then with the del Barbera d’Alba Marun, the Nebbiolo d’Alba La Val dei Preti and finally with the Roero Roche d’Ampsej (produced with pure Nebbiolo grapes), appreciated at international level. Matteo’s passion and devotion are source of inspiration for all the other producers, who are have been involved in an food and wine improvement process, that leads to found the Enoteca Regionale del Roero in 1996, to promote and enhance a the local wine production. Thanks to all these projects the Roero obtained the AOCG denomination in 2004.
Today the direction of the winery is under the lead of his wife Ornella Costa and their son Giovanni, who manage 20 hectares of vineyards, representing perfectly the Matteo’s philosophy. In the winery the aim is to maintain the high quality level of the vineyards, respecting and valorise the natural qualities of the Roero soils, full of sand and mineral salts, which give fineness and elegance to the wines.
The company has reached many important results and it is carrying on many projects about the biological cultivation and new experimentations about the synergy among wine, music and art. For this reason Matteo Correggia’s company collaborates with the famous Conductor Peppe Vessicchio, who strongly believes that the right frequency can benefit plants and their productivity. On the hill Bricco degli Agnelli the soil has been balanced through a special device, patented by researchers who, with copper lamellas resting on the ground, issued precise frequencies for a whole day. The role of the music: six stereo speakers were put among the Nebbiolo rows with two stereos and, alternatively night and day, the music played for many months songs written by Vessicchio, inspired to Mozart. This experiment tries to realise a model of cultivation which avoid the use of copper and sulphurs to let the plants free from chemical substances, so that they can recover their immune system and defend themselves from the attack of pathogens. The first “harmonious” wine should come out this year.