Marco Ferrari: Roots, vertigo, precision

There are encounters that begin around a bottle. And then there are those that ask you to go further, back to the origin. To that exact point where wine stops being something you taste and becomes something you understand, something you experience.

That’s why we recently went to Valtellina. More precisely, to Montagna in Valtellina. Not just to taste, but to see, to touch, to understand. To truly step into Marco Ferrari’s world.

His cellar is exactly like his wines: essential, stripped of distraction. No superfluous aesthetics, no concessions. Only what truly matters: material, time, gesture. Everything is reduced to its core, and that’s precisely where everything happens.

Marco is the same: direct, instinctive, radically focused. His journey begins in Franciacorta, in the province of Brescia, his native land, and takes him far afield, to the Rhône Valley, where he worked alongside some of the greatest interpreters of Syrah. Franck Balthazar, of course, but also Pierre Gonon, Guillaume Gilles, Thierry Allemand. It is there, in Cornas, that Marco roots himself in the deepest, most authentic expression of wine.

Then comes the choice. Clear, decisive: to return to Italy and find his own voice in Valtellina, with Nebbiolo.

A bold decision. Today, perfectly readable in the glass.

We tasted the wines from barrel. Moments difficult to put into words. Still evolving, the wine is not yet what it will be, but it is on its way. Building, taking shape in a suspended, almost intimate phase.

And yet, the direction is already crystal clear. And if the emotion is already this intense today, it’s only natural to wonder what these wines will become over time.

Energy. Verticality. Precision.

The wood is there, but it whispers. It supports without ever imposing. Everything is taut, alive, defined. Wines that do not seek compromise, but a true, profound balance.

And then, the vineyards.

Or rather: terraces carved into the mountain. Vertiginous slopes, dry-stone walls, entirely manual work. Here, nature is not controlled, it is followed. Respected. Confronted, every single day.

This is extreme viticulture. And you can feel it.

In the glass, it becomes tension, minerality, depth.

Marco farms just over two hectares. He is among the pioneers of a rigorous, grounded biodynamic approach in Valtellina. Not theory, but daily practice, learned in the field and applied to small, often old vineyards in the Sassella and Inferno subzones.

Production is around 9,000 bottles per year. Spontaneous fermentations, minimal intervention, maximum precision. Small numbers, driven by a clear ambition: to build a strong, recognizable, contemporary identity.

A Valtellina that does not look back, but forward. One that needs authentic voices, producers who deeply understand these extreme slopes, and at the same time can engage with the world, and with those who truly drink wine.

The day ended at the table. As it always does.

And here too, Valtellina does not disappoint. Quite the opposite. Even less so when you sit down at Trippi, in Sondrio, a true reference point for growers, enthusiasts, and lovers of good food and great bottles.

Because it’s at the table that everything comes together: the effort in the vineyard, the choices in the cellar, the vision.

For us, bringing Marco Ferrari’s wines to Switzerland means exactly this: shortening the distance. Creating a direct connection between the one who makes the wine and the one who drinks it.

And let’s be honest: Nebbiolo is one of our obsessions. From the Langhe to Alto Piemonte, all the way to Valtellina, it’s a grape that never stops surprising us.

No filters.
No artifice.

Just wine.
And the real stories it carries.