Built from 1731 to 1754 in the municipal district of Fiumana, today Predappio,according to Marquis Andrea Albicini's will, it remains, till a short time before the second world war, the favourite resort of the noble family.
Giosuè Carducci , often visiting the family, admired and exalted the structures and the stateliness of the Villa till he declare that it was "built for eternity".
People say that the teacher of the school in Predappio took her children Benito to the gate of the Villa to point at the great poet from a distance.
The name of the Estate would have earliest origins when, in the middle of the XV century, the troops of the leader Pandolfo Malatesta stayed for a long time in this place, during the siege of the Castle of Fiumana.
During the 1936 the Commendatore Giuseppe Ricci bought the Estate from Marquises Albicini starting a long and engaging adventure consisting of huge investments, repairs and restructurings.
These are the years when Romagna and its people identified Pandolfa as the Spirits' house near S. Agostino maybe because of a little girl, that misteriously died, whose whispered prayers can be heard at the fourth floor; maybe because of that chains sound that you can hear during windy days; maybe because of that far train puff...The Villa was centre of a German division that was attacked by Polish people, there are stories about evacuees in the cellars, about basements inside the hill across the little church, about war events with killed soldiers, about tunnels full of snakes closed in a hurry... People tell till today about the Villa with a hundred windows outside and ninety-nine windows inside.
Today the property is in the hands of Mrs Paola Piscopo , granddaughter of the Commendatore.
The Villa, originally in the centre of a vast park, is today encircled by the largest vineyard of the Rabbi valley. Erected in 4 floors lies at the foot of the vast Estate.
Its wonderful rooms, the frescoes, the large staircases, preserved with care in time and recently restored, make it one of the most important villas in Romagna.
The Estate Pandolfa extends on a nearly 140 hectares surface on a hillside prevalently exposed to south, south-east.
The position is in middle hill at an altimetrical band between 150 and 400 metres above sea level. The soil is deep, basically dense, mud-clavey and comes from the destruction of ancient clavey-calcareous sandstones.
Of this area, about 90 hectares are subjected to intensive farming while the remaining part includes woods, sowable land and lawns. Vineyards are by far the widest cultivation with about 80 hectares vineyards in intensive farming cultivated prevalently by "cordone speronato" with a density between 3.500 and 5.000 stubs per hectare.
The vineyards in Pandolfa, originally planted with traditional varieties, mainly Sangiovese (42 hectares) and Trebbiano (10 hectares), have been afterwards enriched with non traditional grapes as white cultivar Chardonnay (12 hectares) and Sauvignon Blanc (1 hectar) and red cultivar Cabernet Sauvignon (4 hectares), Merlot (4 hectares) and Montepulciano (2 hectares). A unique specificity in Pandolfa is the presence of the grape Nebbiolo (about 5 hectares) planted during the Sixties and still present as a differentiation and firm value element.
Trebbiano is the Trebbiano clone "della Fiamma" cultivated in the hill zone around Forlì.
It's very different from the Trebbiano Romagnolo as the vine is less fruitful, grapes less compact and peels take on a beautiful rosy coloration when, during the period of turning colour, they are exposed to direct sunlight.
The Cavicchioli family owns numerous vineyards in the area around the town of Sorbara, situated between the Secchia and Panaro rivers in the province of Modena.
Considered the original production area of Lambrusco, it is here that they have built their wineries. Alongside the bottling plant in San Prospero, the Due Madonne winery is characterised by densely-planted vineyards.
A few kilometres away, the village Staggia is home to the Forcirola winery, which grows Lambrusco Salamino and Lambrusco Grasparossa varieties. In Bastiglia, an eponymous winery is reserved for the production of white wine.
Alongside these sites in the province of Modena, Cavicchioli also owns the Castel Faglia winery in Franciacorta which specialises in the production of traditional-method sparkling wine.
Before being declared fit for bottling, every batch of wine is carefully analysed and tasted by expert oenologists.
Blending is the crucial stage at which the various raw materials used to make Lambrusco are selected and combined to give the finished product the unique qualities for which it is renowned in the market.
When pressing Lambrusco, there is a preference for virgin rather than fermented pomace.
Delicate pneumatic presses apply a constant pressure to separate the must from the grape skins. Inside the presses, a plastic-coated fabric sac inflated with compressed air expands and crushes the loaded pomace and the resultant liquid drips down through special openings into the collection vats.
The grapes are weighed at every pressing cycle, and only the first 50% of must is used to make the best Lambrusco.
This percentage varies slightly from year to year and according to maturation.
After being refermented, the wine is transferred to the bottling machine by means of a pressure differential rather than using pumps.
This operation is preceded by filtration, which eliminates the yeast cells and bacteria and prevents microbial damage. The equipment is sanitised with steam to ensure sterile bottling.
In some cases (particularly when the wine that is to be bottled contains residual sugar), the wine is pasteurised for greater safety. For this purpose, the filled bottles are passed through a tunnel where they are sprayed with hot water to heat the wine to a temperature of 50°C for 30 minutes.
The bottling machine works on an isobaric or back-pressure principle as it brings the pressure inside the empty bottles to the same pressure as the wine. The bottling machine's precise mechanisms and operation prevent froth formation and oxygenation of the wine, further safeguarding its quality.
The bottling stage ends with corking and labelling, and finally the wine is packaged for transport.