About

As a young engineer I arrived – 25 years ago – in the Swiss area of Tessin. My intention was to stay for a 1 year and learn Italian but things turned out very differently. By coincidence my wife and I stumbled across a house on the outskirts of a village called Contone which we could not resist. To begin with we only had a few Merlot vines which we planted along the large pergola surrounding the house. We harvested around 60 bottles a year. As my passion and commitment for wine making grew so did our vineyard. 2005 we had half a hectar, this soon became 1.5 hectars and from 2010 onwards we have 4.5 hectars of vineyards. This translates to around 25000 vines (75% Merlot – 20% Sauvignon Blanc, 5 % made up of other grapes). These are dotted around the various hills of which two-thirds are siutated on steep slopes and one third on flat terrain.

In 2010 – totally self-taught – I turned my hobby to my profession. This may seem like a dream come true, but it was an immense challenge and completely new chapter in my life as it involved tremendous hard physical work on the steep slopes, a sizeable financial commitment for the vineyards and cellar, the wine production, sales and marketing.
The beautiful landscape though nurtured my motivation and kept me going. Further I was spurred on by my ambition to keep Contone’s marvellous old vineyards ‘alive’ and showcase the amazing wines they can produce.
Our task is to give these old vineyards the care and attention they deserve and work closely with the natural environment in order to achieve the best results possible.

The majority of the vines are located above Contone on the slopes of Monte Ceneri, which divides the Tessin area into Sopraceneri and Sottoceneri. The Merlot grape was introduced to this area more than 100 years ago and is the grape of choice for this location. I named the various vineyards after my predecessors: Hugo, Aldo, Fausto, Franco, Giorgio, Edi, Francesco, Paolo, Pierino, Adriano, Gianni. There are two further vineyards in Gerra Piano on a south facing slope (Gerra and Agarone). Only 1/3 of the vines are grown around Contone in the valley (Urs, Leoni, Ennio and Paese).

Due to size limitations within my winery I was only able to produce one red wine: Dopo Mezzanotte, during the early years and up to 2012. 2013 the winery moved to Via Cantonale 42 in Contone. Here at the Centro Profi I can press and process the wine in the best possible way and store in climatised cellars. Additionally I have space to offer various wine tasting experiences to visitors ranging from simple tastings to elaborate dining events. We also host small cultural and musical events.

We are a close knit team and every job is as important as the next. Whether it is cutting grass with a hand mower, pruning the vines, tough forestry work, driving tractors or other heavy vehicles – every single job is of equal importantce as they all ensure that the wine is given the most caring and tender attention is deserves from the start right through to the labelling process in order to be savoured by you and us alike. All this team work combined with additional help during the harvesting period is key to achieve the best possible results year in year out!