Italy · Lambrusco Country (Modena & surrounds)

Fattoria Moretto

A third-generation Castelvetro estate farming Grasparossa exclusively on the Monte Barello hillside, making dry organic Lambrusco with firm tannin and dark fruit.

The producer

Fattoria Moretto is a family estate in Castelvetro di Modena, in the Emilia-Romagna hills south of Modena. The Altariva family arrived in Castelvetro in the early 1960s as sharecroppers, selling Grasparossa grapes and homemade Lambrusco in demijohns. Domenico and Albertina Altariva bought 2.5 hectares on the hillside in 1971 and built the first cellar. Their sons Fabio and Fausto, the third generation, moved the business from bulk sales to bottled DOP wine in 1991, established the Fattoria Moretto name, and began the shift to organic farming four years later.

The estate grows Grasparossa exclusively, on Monte Barello, the only formally recognized subzone within the Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro DOP. Vineyards sit at approximately 200 metres above sea level on clay, silt, and limestone soils, with old vines approaching 60 years alongside younger plantings. ICEA-certified organic farming, manual harvesting, and low yields bring concentrated fruit to the cellar, where Martinotti method secondary fermentation in sealed tanks preserves aromatic clarity and produces a fine, stable mousse. The wines are dry, deeply coloured, firmly tannic, and built for food.

Known for

Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro DOP, organic, Monte Barello subzone

Notable facts

The story

The Name on the First Labels

In 1991, Fabio and Fausto Altariva were in their twenties. Their father Domenico had bought 2.5 hectares on the Castelvetro hills twenty years earlier, built a cellar, and continued the family practice of making Lambrusco Grasparossa and selling it in bulk to private buyers, the same way their grandfather Antonio had done it as a sharecropper, moving Grasparossa grapes and demijohns out of Castelvetro on a day-by-day basis. The brothers decided that arrangement was finished. They dug the cellar further into the basement, built out the bottling operation, shifted the whole business from bulk container to individually labelled bottle, and put the name Fattoria Moretto on the label for the first time. Three decades of family Lambrusco history, from sharecropper's demijohn to estate DOP bottle, had compressed into one construction project and one decision about what to write on the glass.

From the atlas

Fattoria Moretto

At A Glance

Producer: Fattoria Moretto Country: Italy Region: Emilia-Romagna Appellation: Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro DOP Village: Castelvetro di Modena Grape: Grasparossa (exclusively) Vineyard: Monte Barello Generation: Third (Fabio and Fausto Altariva) Farming: Certified organic (ICEA) Entry Bottle: Tasso

---

The Producer

Fattoria Moretto is a third-generation family estate in Castelvetro di Modena, a hill town in the Emilia-Romagna Apennine foothills south of Modena. The Altariva family farms Grasparossa exclusively, on a single hillside subzone called Monte Barello, within the Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro DOP appellation. Everything the estate bottles comes from that hillside and that one grape.

Most people who associate Lambrusco with sweet, lightly fizzy red wine have not encountered Grasparossa from this elevation. Fattoria Moretto makes dry, deeply coloured, tannic sparkling red wine. The grape, the site, and the decision to farm organically and harvest by hand all point in the same direction: intensity over approachability, specificity over volume.

---

Place

Castelvetro di Modena sits in the hills south of Modena, at the northern edge of the Apennines. Lambrusco is widely associated with the flat Po Valley floor, where the grape grows in abundance and produces lighter, high-volume wines. The Castelvetro DOP pulls the appellation up into the hills, and Monte Barello is the only formally recognized subzone within it.

Fattoria Moretto's vineyards on Monte Barello sit at approximately 200 metres above sea level. The elevation extends the growing season compared to valley-floor sites, allowing Grasparossa to accumulate ripeness without losing its acidity. The hillside orientation and cooler nights preserve the grape's natural aromatic complexity. On the label, the Monte Barello subzone identification places the wine in the most geographically specific tier the DOP allows.

---

Soil And Site

The Monte Barello soils are clay, silt, and limestone in combination. The clay fraction retains moisture through dry periods and gives body to the wine. The silt contributes a fineness of texture. The limestone adds an alkaline mineral baseline that runs through the fruit and lifts the acidity.

Old vines approaching 60 years of age grow alongside younger plantings across the Monte Barello parcels. The old vines produce smaller yields with more concentrated fruit. The estate keeps yields deliberately low across all age classes, harvests by hand, and manages vine rows carefully to bring whole, undamaged clusters to the cellar.

---

Story

Antonio Altariva moved from Pavullo nel Frignano to Castelvetro in the early 1960s and worked the land as a sharecropper, selling Grasparossa grapes and homemade Lambrusco in demijohns to local buyers. The family had no estate, no cellar, and no label.

In 1971, Antonio's son Domenico and his wife Albertina bought 2.5 hectares on the Castelvetro hills, built a small house, planted vines, and dug the first cellar. They made Lambrusco Grasparossa and sold it as before, mostly in bulk. That continued until Domenico and Albertina's sons Fabio and Fausto were in their twenties.

In 1991, the brothers decided the wine would no longer leave the property in containers. They expanded the cellar into the basement, moved the business from bulk sales to bottled DOP wine, and put the Fattoria Moretto name on the first labels. Four years later they began the shift toward organic farming. By the late 1990s they had also changed the fermentation method, moving from bottle refermentation to the Martinotti (Charmat) method, sealed-tank secondary fermentation. Both changes, the organic turn and the Charmat move, held.

---

Vineyards And Cellar

Certified organic farming means no synthetic herbicides, pesticides, or fertilisers in the Monte Barello vineyards. The estate holds ICEA organic certification, the Italian body whose mark appears on Tasso's label. Manual harvesting ensures that only whole clusters reach the cellar, avoiding oxidation and skin damage that would add bitter tannin and reduce aromatic freshness.

Low yields concentrate flavour in the fruit. Where higher-yielding vineyards dilute colour and tannin, Fattoria Moretto's approach to vine management keeps Grasparossa's naturally thick skins and deep pigmentation working in the wine's favour.

In the cellar, secondary fermentation happens in sealed pressurised tanks using the Martinotti method. The grape's aromatics, particularly the floral and herbal top notes that sit alongside its dark fruit, emerge more clearly under controlled tank conditions than they would through the slower, less temperature-stable process of bottle refermentation. The mousse is fine and persistent rather than coarse. The wine stays dry.

---

Wines

The estate makes six wines, five of them from Grasparossa and one sparkling white. The Grasparossa range covers five distinct styles: dry red sparkling, semi-sweet red sparkling, rosé sparkling, and two cuvées differentiated by vineyard selection or vine age. This breadth of interpretation from one grape on one hillside is the range's architecture: Grasparossa is not presented as a one-note variety but as a grape with enough range of expression to carry a full portfolio.

Tasso is the dry red sparkling Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro DOP, the entry-level and most widely distributed wine. It draws on Monte Barello fruit, carries ICEA organic certification, and shows a fruit profile built on raspberry, strawberry, and cherry alongside rose, geranium, menthol, and iodine notes. Its colour is deep ruby-violet, the tannin is present and firm, and the acidity is vivid. The wine is dry, not off-dry.

The semi-sweet interpretation gives buyers a route into Grasparossa's dark fruit character without the grip of the dry version, but the hillside concentration and organic farming carry through into sweetness levels and texture. The rosé and the site-specific or vine-age cuvées extend the range into more specialist territory: different harvest timing, different tannin extraction, different mousse character. The sparkling white offers contrast, a single non-Grasparossa wine that functions as a palate break within the range.

---

In The Glass

Grasparossa from Monte Barello pours a deep ruby-violet with a violet foam that fades to pink at the edge. The nose opens with ripe red fruit, raspberry and cherry at the front, then darkens toward blackberry and violet. Behind the fruit come rose petal, geranium, a cool herbal note of menthol, and a mineral iodine thread that separates this from simpler fruit-forward sparkling reds.

In the mouth, the mousse is fine and assertive rather than coarse or fleeting. The acidity arrives early and runs the length of the wine, keeping the dark fruit from feeling heavy. Tannin is genuine and present, more so than in valley-floor Lambrusco, contributing grip and drying the finish. The finish is long, dry, and slightly austere in the best sense: the fruit recedes and leaves acidity and a faint mineral note.

The dry versions of Grasparossa from this hillside behave more like a structured red wine than a sparkling aperitif. Food amplifies rather than diminishes them.

---

A Bottle To Understand It

Tasso is the bottle. It is a dry red sparkling Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro DOP from Monte Barello, organically farmed, Martinotti-method, and it is what Grasparossa from Castelvetro's hills actually tastes like when the grape is taken seriously.

The wine is deeply coloured, firmly tannic, and dry. The aromatic profile includes raspberry, strawberry, cherry, rose, geranium, menthol, and a mineral iodine thread. The mousse is fine and persistent. The acidity is vivid. There is no residual sweetness to soften the experience, and none is needed: the fruit has enough weight to carry the tannin, and the acidity keeps everything moving through to a clean finish.

Start with Tasso to understand what hillside Grasparossa is, and why it is so different from the soft, semi-sweet Lambrusco that most buyers think they know.

---

Anecdote

In 1991, Fabio and Fausto Altariva were in their twenties. Their father Domenico had bought 2.5 hectares on the Castelvetro hills twenty years earlier, built a cellar, and carried on the family business of making Lambrusco Grasparossa and selling it in bulk to private buyers, the same way their grandfather Antonio had done it as a sharecropper, moving Grasparossa grapes and demijohns. The brothers decided that arrangement was finished. They dug the cellar further into the basement, built out the bottling operation, moved the whole business from bulk container to individual labelled bottle, and put the name Fattoria Moretto on the label for the first time. Three decades of family Lambrusco history, from sharecropper's demijohn to estate DOP bottle, had compressed into one construction project and one decision about what to write on the glass.

---

Final Word

Fattoria Moretto is what happens when a family takes a single grape on a single hillside and refuses to make anything else. Grasparossa from Monte Barello is not sweet Lambrusco from the valley floor. It is a dry, tannic, deeply coloured sparkling red wine from organically farmed hillside vines, made with the Martinotti method, adopted in the late 1990s. Tasso is where to begin.

---

Sources

Open Fattoria Moretto in the interactive map →