From 1919 to 1945 the brothers Alberto, Alfredo and Francesco Pardi worked the grapes of their family vineyards by hand on the ground floor of the stately building of Saint Francis in Montefalco.
The Bianco, Rosso and Sagrantino Passito wines produced in the historical winery were marketed all over Umbria, and the most prestigious buyer was the Vatican.
Since 2002 their great-grandsons Francesco, Gianluca Rio and Alberto Mario Pardi have been reviving their great-grandfathers' winery.
The present winery
It is located just outside the medieval gates of Montefalco, and covers an area of about 1.100 square meters,with an additional underground barrel cellar. Here the grapes, from adjacent and nearby proprietary vineyards, are sorted, crushed, fermented, and aged, to eventually be bottled and released as DOC and DOCG wines.
The vineyards: the grapes come from 5 vineyards that belong to the Pardi family and are located in the Montefalco DOC appellation, along the gentle hills of Casale, Campolungo, Lasignano and Pietrauta.
The vineyards cover 11 hectares,of which only 5,5 hectares produce grapes at the moment.
Plantation Density: 4.000 to 5.000 vines per hectare.
Training System: Cordon, spur pruned.
Grape Varieties
Red Grape: Sagrantino, Sangiovese, Merlot, Cabernet
White Grapes: Chardonnay, Grechetto, Trebbiano Spoletino
Pruning: short pruning is done by hand from January to February for all the grape varieties.
Removing side-growths: it is done by hand in May.
Defoliation: it is done by hand in July and August.
Thinning: the excess bunches of grapes are thinned out in the early summer, in order to improve the quality of the harvested grapes .
Grape harvesting: harvesting is done by hand when the grapes are fully ripe. The grapes are picked and carried in small crates: each crate contains 15 Kilos for white and red grapes, 3 Kilos for late harvested sagrantino grapes.