The Estate
Not only a dream come true, but also a work that brings an abandoned hill back to forgotten splendor, where vineyards placed on terraces supported by dry stone walls surround it.
The 350 meters of altitude, the soil composed of calcareous marl and clay, an ideal microclimate for wine production and careful care are the filters from which constant wines full of territoriality emerge, the pride of the Testa family, who, harvest after harvest, they renew the challenge that lies silent in this small strip of land.
Only thorough, painstaking work with targeted renovation interventions, the great dedication of Mr. Pierangelo and the love for his land could gradually transform the abandoned hill into a "paradise".
Added to this is that unmistakable feminine touch and attention to detail that Mrs. Manuela and her daughters have been able to instill in every corner of the company.
The production is limited, but of the highest level; niche products that a select few and connoisseurs know about, which is cared for and followed step by step up to bottling with particular attention that does not take into account the costs, effort and hours dedicated to work, but which is based on that The enormous satisfaction that comes from producing and offering to friends and customers something special with a unique aroma and an unmistakable mouthfeel: the Vino degli Angeli.
History
Legends, fables and local gossip tease the imagination, overflowing with truth. But behind each of them, sometimes, there are obvious realities. Santo Stefano degli Angeli: the area.
Tenuta degli Angeli: the farm and Pierangelo, the name of the founder, recall a whole that goes far beyond simple homonymy. The quiet of the place that envelops and involves, the pure air of the hills and those abstract sensations, but so intense that they become concrete, are lymph for the body and panacea for the spirit.
On Boxing Day the Angels don't fly low: they are at home. When, in 1984, Pierangelo Testa decided to add a green oasis or rather, a port from which to set sail for Liquide Imprese to his Tri Plok shipyard (concrete products, specializing in "wine tanks"), he took over Valle Calepio, precisely in the municipality of Carobbio degli Angeli, approximately two hectares of "healthy land".
Rich in calcareous marl, generous, fertile and reserved for viticulture since time immemorial.
Here the so-called "farmer's wines" were produced: intense shades, aromas of must and "abbocato" (that's what it was called back then), masculine, naïve, somewhat raw. At the same time he pressed all the pressables and pressed himself even more.
The result was certainly not exciting... But beyond personal, changeable and perfectible tastes, the wines of Colle degli Angeli were characterized by an enviable alcoholic structure. Therefore, without the aid of granted additions, the thirteen natural degrees were not utopia; if anything the opposite...
Aware of this "gift", Pierangelo Testa worked with intuition and bulldozers...
Today on the elite hill there is a "bonbonniere" vineyard: small in size and full of promises, kept harvest after harvest. The plants, chosen according to the characteristics of the soil, climate and microclimate; the appropriate breeding methodology and the suffrage of the Grand Designer who only signs the best, have made Pierangelo's dream come true, changing the hobby into a convinced passion. Passed on with equal fervor to the kind, dynamic wife Mrs. Manuela, to her daughters Laura, Roberta and Maria and Francesco, the only son.
A cutting-edge cellar has been added to the initial one (now dedicated to the "snoozing" of the Reserves). So functional, delicious and evocative that it was cited in the Guinness Book of Harmonies.
Here sacredness seems to play hide and seek with silence.
And the Angels, "petrified", anxiously await the new events.
The legend
The Calepio Valley is one of the small and charming valleys that the Bergamo province has kept in reserve for those who, lovers of nature and the works of human ingenuity, still want to discover.
Opening from the Sebino, it follows the same water for a good stretch which, now called the Oglio river, descends slowly and solemnly towards the Great Father of the largest plain in Italy: the Po.
The strong structures of the mountains, Galene and Brozone, protect it at its birth, giving it a sweet and deliciously cool climate. Uncontaminated nature? Well, perhaps it is no longer uncontaminated, it certainly retains the charm of a life respectful of its rhythms which, linked to the slow progression of the seasons, have allowed Man to make history.
And the history of a people is also a culture made up of great things and minimal things, of great actions and fantasies which, cemented in knowledge, have left indelible marks on us people of the year 2000. Such as, for example, works of learned or popular art, imposing and majestic or poor and essential constructions, but also the naming of a place: the legend tells...
Will it be legend?
One morning, in the square of Carobbio (a small town in the Calepio Valley), a handsome young man who had never been seen before in the village suddenly appeared. His features had something familiar…
Yes, it looked a lot like the marble statue of the Angel that was located on the castle, on the top of Mount Santo Stefano.
The meandering disbelief was, in a short time, supplanted by curiosity and so it was that some bold young men went up, determined, to the ancient manor to check. What was the surprise in discovering that the statue was not in its usual place.
But then…
After a few days, as suddenly as he had arrived, the young man disappeared and no trace of him remained, not even his name which, in the general amazement, no one had thought to ask. At this point there was only one thing left to do, go back to the castle to check, another surprise: the statue of the angel was there, in its place.
Since then, legend has it that, from time to time, the angel still leaves the castle and comes down to the town, perhaps in the company of other celestial creatures: this is why the village took the name of CAROBBIO DEGLI ANGELI.
Now the Angel of the castle, stylized together with the battlements of the ancient manor of medieval origin, appears as a symbol of the "TENUTA DEGLI ANGELI", the winery created by Manuela and Pierangelo Testa right on some land which, halfway up the mountain S. Stefano, were the heritage of the castle and, already at that time, suited to the cultivation of vineyards.
On the other hand, we are in Valle Calepio, wine land par excellence.
The Angel who wanted to mingle with men, perhaps to have an earthly experience, now acts as godfather to the wines produced by this company, which have the ambition of being... celestial.
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