THE HISTORY

 

In order to value the historical roots of the wine company CASA BENNA ® people have to consider at least two finds exposed in the tasting room:

the first, cronologically, is a great evocative fascination element. We are talking about a whale's vertebra from the Pliocene era (more than two millions and a half years ago), that came to the light during the plowing operations that preceded the plant of a wineyard.
The find is well conserved, the external facets, the nervous channel and the flat and the smooth side on which the disk was supported are well visible. We like to think about that distant times, to think about that prehistoric inhabitant of the water that now is celebrated with the wine...

The second find is the punch with the crest of the great-grandfather, with which the utensils (that were ll made of wood) of the cellar were branded with fire: the hopper for the pressing, the tubs, the vats and the corker.

The great-grandfather Giovanni was also a dealer, with the horse he went down to Liguria with a load of wine and he came back with a load of oil.

The Molinari family has got his roots in Montezago di Lugagnano (PC). Thanks to the grandfather Pietro, now thay have the estate Casa Benna in Castell'Arquato, with the menor and the characteristic turret dating back too 1700. At that time the part of the soil used as vineyard was very little, more or less one hectar, for that reason that wine was known as a wine that "can be cut with a knife".
In order to demonstrate that, in the firm is secured a framework with a certificate of silver medal assignet to Molinari Pietro for the wine presented at the first corporate exhibition of the Val d'Arda in 1937.

Thanks to dad, the surveyor Giovanni, in the early '50s thay started to use the first thresher in order to facilitate the job used to be done manually, and in the late '50s the specialization as the vineyard of the agricultural company CASA BENNA ®.

With a certain foresight and adroitness and thanks to the promoters of the D.O.C. GUTTURNIO, he started to produce a new kind of still red wine that has got great potentiality.

Especially in the '70s and '80s, in order to get a good still wine they could not put aside from an excellent grape's quality. The harvest used to be done (also nowadays) by hand, grapes were placed in small boxes and, every grape harvester used to get a small basket in which he used to store the not yet mature or not perfectly healthy clusters. Until 1985 the GUTTURNIO in CASA BENNA use to be only a still wine.
Afterwards, following the demands of important clients (for example the restaurant "Da Faccini") we started to produce the new version of this still wine: the sparkling one, always produced with excellent grape's quality in order to get a great wine, perfecly suitable to the Emilian cuisine.

Dad Giovanni had 3 children: Pietro, Giusy and Andrea. Thanks to Pietro, that prematurely died in 1997, now we have the project of the new wine cellar (acually used) and also the promotion of the GUTTURNIO RISERVA in the firm. With the harvest of 1990, a selection of Still Gutturnio is refined in barrels of Slavonia's Rovere wood from 10 hectolitres each.
Indeed we believe that the Gutturnio wine is not suitable to a small barrique (225 litres), but contrarily to a larger barrel, in order to avoid that the smell of the wood preominates on the vine characteristics.
From 1997, the commitment for the improvements of the wineyards and the wine cellar is constant, for that reason we can assist at the replanting with important drainage and leveling of the soil, and in the cellar, we acquire at the technology of the control of the temperature of the tanks for fermentation.

From 2005 also the nephew Alessandro works full time in our firm, and being a great mechanical expert, he has promoted a great rational modernization of the machines and the equipment.
From 2008, after the purchase of two autoclaves, tha stage of taking the foam take place totally inside the firm and, with the purchase of an isobaric filler, also the bottling is totally developed inside the firm. For this reason a precise and complete control of the whole production process is realized also for sparkling wines.