The history of the Berta distillery
A farming family for grappa.
Four generations of Berta
Four generations for grappa, four generations to create the ultra-modern Berta di Roccanivo distillery in Casalotto di Mombaruzzo, four generations that began on 11 July 1866 with the birth of Francesco Berta.
It was a time when Rome was not yet the capital, when the Expedition of the Thousand had just ended and Vittorio Emanuele II was still King of Italy. It was a time of simplicity and rural life, of sacrifice and respect for traditions.
Francesco Berta, as in all farming families, worked in the vineyards and cellars from a very young age, and with foresight and daring, as soon as he grew up he looked around for customers to sell his product. At the age of twenty-two he married Erminia Barbero and from their union, Giovanni was born in 1889 and Michele in 1905. In accordance with the peasant tradition of the time, which recommended not dividing up the property, Francesco decided to entrust his eldest son Giovanni with the work he had undertaken, while Michele was given the opportunity to study and graduate in pharmacy.
In the 1930s, Michele opened a pharmacy in Milan, while Giovanni continued his father's work, which was continued and expanded by his son Paolo, with the foundation in 1947 of the first distillery in Nizza Monferrato.
1888. Francesco married Erminia Barbero. The hard work, manual skills and frugality of the rural world at the end of the nineteenth century do not repress the will and passion of Francesco, who, at a time when the "peasant" was content to live on a subsistence economy, challenges tradition in search of new commercial outlets.
1913. The wedding day of Giovanni and Paolina. Giovanni, a man of great traditions, distinguished himself at the beginning of the century for the production of important wines: our beloved Barbera, Freisa (awarded a gold medal at the 1908 competition in Rome) and Moscato d'Asti. Giovanni was also one of the founding members of the Asti Spumante Consortium.
1920. The 'Cascina Roccanivo' in an old postcard.
1935. Young Paolo in the company of his aunt and uncle, Michele Berta and Giuseppina Rivolta.
1955. The Berta family in a moment of rest at the Roccanivo farmhouse in Casalotto.
Choosing the profession of pharmacist
1948. In the company of his sister Maria and the old Balilla, ready to leave for Liguria... the "Salt Road".
The address that Francesco chose for his son's work was curious for the time, given that traditionally the second son was sent to the seminary, but very significant for the Berta family's entrepreneurial future.
The pharmacy started by Michele was an ambitious objective, even though it was not the large shop of today, it represented a highly prestigious environment, a place of treatment, but also of research in a field so vast that it included both herbal medicine and chemistry. It was a place of healing, but also of research in a field so vast that it included both herbal medicine and chemistry. Giovanni supplied him with Barbera chinata and Moscato passito elixir, which were sold in bottles, but also by the glass in pharmacies.
Francesco's intuitions come to fruition
The opening of the pharmacy in Milan, exemplary for its time, allowed the Berta di Roccanivo winery to move towards new commercial ventures in cities such as Genoa, Turin, Brescia and Bergamo, thus activating those virtuous circuits between producer and consumer that consolidated wine culture for a century, not only through relationships of trust between people, but also thanks to the valuable mediation of expert and competent merchants. Francesco Berta's intuitions had given a secure and modern perspective to the family, which in the meantime was strengthened with the birth of his grandchildren Francesco, Teresina, Erminia, Maria and Paolo.
Their positive contribution enabled the Berta family to overcome without serious difficulty the terrible crises of the first post-war period, which had greatly penalised the wine economy. It was from Asti and a mayor called Vigna that the national battle against the metropolitan wine duty began, a tax detested by farmers and consumers, which mortified relations between the countryside and the city. Entrusted to private companies, this tax took the form of blackmail and extortion, especially as it was levied before the product was delivered.
The last of five children, it was Paolo who continued and increased his father's work. With great difficulty and sacrifice, he had the opportunity to study and, while the Second World War raged, he graduated as a wine technician in 1947 in Alba. He then decided to integrate the family business with the opening of the "Distilleria Berta di Berta Paolo" in Nizza Monferrato. The opening coincided with the marriage of Paolo and Lidia Giovine. A strange coincidence, destiny or inevitable circumstance, this sweet union determines a history based on family, which gives solidity and prospects to the company. A history that would certainly have been different if it had not been built solidly on the family unit, on integration and on the progressive replacement of generations.
1947. Paolo graduated with full marks from the Alba Wine School, specialising in the production of spirits. The winery gives way to Ditta Berta, a company producing grappas, liqueurs and similar products.
1950. The first licence for the sale of alcoholic products to the public.
1950. Paolo (second from the left) in front of the entrance to the Nizza Monferrato transformation laboratory.
1952. The treasure hunt. Paolo "sponsors" the Carnival parties at the Scatting Ball in Nizza Monferrato, giving a bottle to all the participants.
1952. Paolo and Lidia Giovine's wedding. The guests pose in front of the entrance to the house in Nizza Monferrato, built by Francesco at the end of the last century. This is the distillery's historic headquarters.
The strategy of quality
1954. Paolo and Lidia sell the Balilla for a more modern and useful means of transport.
1956. In March, on Women's Day, their firstborn son Gianfranco is born.
1960. February sees the birth of their second son Enrico.
1960. The family is complete.
1961. Lidia with Enrico, Paolo with Gianfranco together with uncles and cousins.
1961. The elegant silver and crystal bottles.
1961. Ceramic bottles produced in the Republic of San Marino depicting the Municipality of Mombaruzzo and the surrounding territory.
1965. Paolo and Lidia's grappas.
1975. Paolo Berta (first on the left) at the San Carlo fair in Nizza Monferrato.
1978. Asti Artigiana Fair. Paolo (first on the left) and a very young Enrico (second on the right).
1979. Paolo on the occasion of his nomination as "Cavaliere delle Terre di Asti e del Monferrato".
1979. Enrico in the Nizza Monferrato offices.
The strategy of quality can be defined as the backdrop adopted by Distilleria Berta di Berta Paolo, it can be considered the fil rouge that unites and connects the four generations that in evolution, development and growth have never abandoned it.
After his first work experiences as an oenologist in the local wineries, Paolo's idea was to produce grappas and liqueurs, seeking new added value for the family business' wine products. In this way, step by step, the small distillery made its products known abroad in special ceramic bottles and very particular crystals, thanks to the stays of people from Germany, Switzerland, America and Australia who went to the nearby Canelli to visit the great sparkling wine industries, the first vanguards of business tourism.
In this context Paolo and Lidia remained in the artisan dimension with the aim of maintaining and improving a quality that was by now persistent and consolidated.
These were the years of the economic explosion in which other distilleries with an industrial imprint focused on the large market and sales figures, and these were the years in which Gianfranco and Enrico, Lidia and Paolo's sons, came onto the scene, courageously deciding not to adapt, not to be content, not to be attracted by immediate profit and gain, by large numbers. They continue the family tradition. They remain craftsmen. They aim for quality.
Craftsman courage against industrial power
With constant commitment, the Berta family has reached the umpteenth turning point, the invention and market launch of a new bottle, the Beuta Berta, a format customary in analysis laboratories and adopted by the distillery to give a clearly identifiable image to its products. A choice that we can now consider a winner, but which was difficult and risky at the time, as it meant abandoning the appetising, rapidly expanding market of the future, that of modern distribution, for a smaller, niche market. The Berta family confidently made this leap into the void, turning directly and personally to the restaurant sector and the small specialist shop. A choice that today it is easy to consider mature and progressive, but which at the time represented the acceptance of a tiring and complex job, with no certainty of success.
t was the eighties, the years in which the tasks were defined: production to Gianfranco, marketing to Enrico, packaging of the beautiful bottles to Lidia while Paolo continued undaunted to preserve some exceptional batches of grappa, passing them from barrel to barrel, from barrique to barrique. It is the story of a family, which continually makes long-term choices, favouring the growth and fortune of its descendants.
1980. The Beuta Berta, the historic format used by the family.
1981. The first fairs. The Berta brothers with Simonetta, Gianfranco's girlfriend and current wife, at the Orzinuovi (BS) fair.
1982. Enrico during one of the numerous tastings in the eighties.
1982. The stand of Distilleria Berta di Berta Paolo e Figli. Alessandria City Fair.
1983. Gianfranco and Simonetta at the Nice Fair.
The creation of a new market from nothing.
1984. The innovative bottles of the Eighties and blown glass.
1984. The innovative bottles of the eighties and blown glass.
1984. The innovative bottles of the eighties and blown glass.
The exterior of the Nizza Monferato distillery.
1984. During the November fair in Nizza Monferrato, the Berta family is visited by Piero Gros, the Olympic skiing champion, and Tiziano Bieler. A representative of the "Valanga Azzurra".
1986. The Berta "meetings". Unfailing "bubbles".
1988. The Nizza Monferrato distilleries at work and the grade control tanks.
1988. The Nizza Monferrato distilleries at work and the grade control tanks.
1989. A refining department of Nizza Monferrato.
1990. Family reunion: Paolo with his brother and sisters.
1991. Rome. Gianfranco, Giovanni Goria, then Minister of Agriculture, and Giorgio Ruffolo, then Minister of the Environment, during a presentation of typical Piedmontese products.
1995. Paolo, Gianfranco, Lidia and little Annacarla.
1996. Montevideo - Uruguay: Gianfranco in the company of the then Italian ambassador to Uruguay, Alberto Boniver.
These are years of intense work, years of research applied to traditional production techniques, years dedicated to the brilliant construction of a new market in which we get to know the participants and protagonists one by one.
These were the years in which, alongside the anonymous and cold market created by the industry in the large-scale retail trade, a friendly and supportive chain of people developed who encountered great grappa, a strong and gentle distillate that smells of tradition but which, interpreted in a very modern key, is rich in aromas, sensations and emotions of intoxicating finesse.
These were the years in which customers, invited by Enrico, began to visit the Nizza Monferrato distillery, consolidating a relationship made up first of humanity rather than of economic convenience; these were the years in which restaurateurs and wine merchants became personally known to Gianfranco and Enrico. Years in which customers were friends and family.
These are the years in which Distilleria Berta dei figli di Berta Paolo & C. Snc became the current Distillerie Berta srl, in the nineties, more precisely in 1990, the year in which Paolo and Lidia officially retired, without abandoning their creation.
These are the years in which Simonetta Ghignone marries Gianfranco, increasing the workforce of the family business, of which she takes care of the administration, years in which Annacarla is born in 1989 and Giulia in 1995, daughter of Enrico and Elisabetta Malfatto. These are the years in which the role of women in the Berta family/business is confirmed, making the future of these grappas increasingly feminine, not only because of the pleasant approach of women to this product but also because of the ownership.
Intense years of hard work, continuous growth and unceasing development, there are many testimonies, starting with the expansion of the Nizza Monferrato distillery, which specialises in a discontinuous steam boiler system, passing through a new system of grape pomace preservation, using special hermetic containers that keep it healthy and moist throughout the entire processing period, and then arriving at the uniqueness of the product, determined by the complexity and care with which it is processed.
It is thanks to its uniqueness and the passion of the Berta brothers that more and more foreign markets are opening up to imports of this product. Today more than sixty countries import Berta grappas.
Hastae
It all began with a glass of Barbera in the Berta family tavern on a July evening in 1997. They were talking, as always, about wine, about the hope of the 'great harvest', reinforced by the exceptional early ripening that could be seen in the vineyards; it was not a real dinner, but a ribota based on bread, salami and robiola cheese from the Asti area. Someone pointed out, with amused pride, the happy paradox of the Asti area, which is used to nonchalantly combining the centuries-old tradition of taverns with the Italian primacy of starred restaurants. Guido Alciati had just passed away, a man who had always believed in his land, with a love and rigour that had led him to be one of the greatest Italian restaurateurs.
Someone had said 'Love our land, that's the point', another had added: 'Love our history, our art and our culture' and then also 'Love our villages, our castles and our farmhouses' and again 'Love our cuisine, which changes with the seasons, faithful to the cycle of nature', 'Love our hills, the breasts of Monferrato - as Pavese wrote - with their vineyards'. "Loving the land of Asti and doing something for it'.
This is Hastae's dream.
The Roman name of the ancient city of Asti, universally known as a place symbolic of wine, was chosen to designate this consortium and became the symbol of a project that saw the involvement of six families of long-standing wine tradition in promoting the image of Barbera d'Asti and the territory, its origin.
They included Berta, Braida, Michele Chiarlo, Coppo and two Alba-based houses, Vietti and Prunotto, the latter part of the Florentine Antinori group.
Quorum was the symbol of the common commitment, a wine and a grappa, obtained from the best Barbera grapes that each of the families produced in their own vineyards. Grappa was then the natural conclusion to the production cycle.
This project attracted the interest of the market and allowed the six companies that were part of it to realise their love for their territory, its culture and art, allocating part of the profits to important and prestigious socio-cultural investments.
Hastae: Berta, Braida, Chiarlo, Coppo, Prunotto, Vietti, the producers of Quorum.
The tavern opens to the reserves
1998. Top row from left: Gianfranco, Enrico, Mario Cordero and Alberto Chiarlo. Second row from left: Simona Chiarlo, Paolo Coppo, Annacarla, Simonetta and Marco Reitano, Sommelier at "La Pergola" in Rome. Front row from left: Heinz Beck, Chef of "La Pergola" and Danilo Maffei.
1999. Gianfranco and Enrico in the Taverna in Nice with friends and Juventus managers.
2002. Simonetta, Adelmo Fornaciari "Zucchero", Annacarla and Gianfranco.
2000. Enrico and Gianfranco with Lidia and Paolo.
2004. Gianfranco and Enrico with their wives Simonetta and Elisabetta and daughters Annacarla and Giulia. The tradition continues.
2007.Sergio Vastano, guest of Distillerie Berta.
2008. The American Nobel Prize winner for Chemistry in 2002, Prof. K. Barry Sharpless and Mrs. with Enrico.
2010. Marc Storace, leader of the Swiss rock band Krokus.
2009. A crew from the TV programme Overland visits us.
2011. Stefano Masciarelli and Flavio Montrucchio, guests of Distillerie Berta.
2012. The great Italian volleyball team of Bre Banca Lanutti Cuneo at Distillerie Berta: from the left Leandro Vissotto Neves, Gigi "Mastro" Mastrangelo, Gianfranco Berta, captain Wout Wijsmans and Simonetta Ghignone.
This brings us to 1994: the company, now a hundred years old, expands further and opens the tavern, not only to Berta grappa but also to the wines of the Berta family's friends. The list of visitors and passionate grappa drinkers grew and was enriched with many friends from the world of entertainment and sport, artists, writers, great restaurateurs and noble Italian winemaking families.
1994 was also a year of fundamental importance because it saw the birth of the first selection of Reserves, fine grappas aged for years in small barrels, Paolo's creations. The Berta family, not without some trepidation, presented these novelties to the market, a market made up of connoisseurs who decreed their immediate success.
There are five products. Roccanivo, the eight-year-old grappa made from the finest Barbera pomace, is the forerunner of a new style, strongly signed by Berta, which sets the standard and is consolidated year after year. Bric del Gaian, from Moscato marc, also aged for eight years in small casks. Tre soli tre, from Nebbiolo pomace, aged for eight years in barrels. Riserva del Fondatore Paolo Berta, twenty years of ageing. Magia, grape distillate aged ten years. The strong, graceful bottles, refined in their gold lettering, guarded by dark walnut wood boxes. The novelty of elegance. The elegance of the classic.
The distilleries of Casalotto di Mombaruzzo
In 2002, the Berta's address took over the place-name of Roccanivo. This is how the company changed domicile to move nearby, where the first generation had initially started. The result is a large structure built with a sober sense of proportion on the hills of wine, in which the house of grappa, whose frieze bears the family name, fits in serenely. Open and comfortable, it is decorated with the coats of arms of all the surrounding villages, where workmanship is carried out with craftsmanship.
In a warm, muffled atmosphere, steam-powered stills work slowly and painstakingly to transform the damp, fragrant pomace into the sweet but powerful divine nectar.
Visitors are greeted by an ancient wooden roof and breathtaking views of the hilly landscape. The Berta Distilleries have not only become an undisputedly important stop on the itineraries that increasingly bring lovers of food and wine to these hills, but they continue to be the destination of many friends from the world of entertainment and sport, artists, writers, great restaurateurs and noble families of Italian winemakers; all linked to "that unmistakable aroma of freshly pressed grapes".
The culture of hospitality in the Berta household is an ancient and precious tradition, as is the spirit of union and collaboration with all those who work for the territory. Elegant, refined and sentimental are the grappas of today, the grappas that are pleasantly tasted in the company's lounges.
So the Berta family opens its tasting rooms to offer the widest possible range of typical local products. At Casalotto di Mombaruzzo the excellent products and the many gastronomic delicacies of the Astesana hills find their showcase: among these there are the macaroons of Mombaruzzo produced by the Berta Pastry Shops and by the historical Pastry Shop Moriondo Carlo and presented not only in the classic version but also in the new version with grappa and in the exquisite variants with hazelnut, coffee, candied fruits and covered with fine chocolate.