Italy · Monferrato & Asti

Tenuta La Fiammenga

A fourth-generation organic estate in Cioccaro di Penango making Barbera d'Asti with slow fermentation, prolonged skin contact, and more grip than the appellation typically delivers.

The producer

Tenuta La Fiammenga sits in Cioccaro di Penango, a village on the Asti side of Monferrato in southern Piemonte. The estate takes its name from Pietro Jescot, a Flemish cloth merchant who owned the land around the turn of the seventeenth century: fiammenga, the Italian word for Flemish, has stayed on the property ever since. Cousins Paolo and Guido Sartirano, fourth-generation wine producers, run the 30 hectares today, farming organically across marl, blue clay and Asti sands. Commercial production began in 2001 with Grignolino d'Asti and Barbera d'Asti.

The estate's flagship is Pajon, a Barbera d'Asti DOCG Superiore made from 100% Barbera by a method Paolo Sartirano calls vinificazione materica. The grapes are destemmed without crushing, moved into 500-litre tonneaux, and left in slow fermentation with prolonged skin contact. The wine comes out dark, firm and savoury, with dense fruit, a balsamic note, noticeable tannin and the bright acidity that Barbera carries naturally. It is the opposite of light, quick-drinking Barbera d'Asti, and that distance is the point.

Known for

Barbera d'Asti DOCG Superiore from 100% Barbera, made by vinificazione materica: whole destemmed berries, slow fermentation in 500-litre tonneaux, prolonged skin contact.

Notable facts

The story

The Flemish Godfather

In 1596, a Flemish cloth merchant named Pietro Jescot stood as godfather at the baptism of Theodora, daughter of Monferrato painter Guglielmo Caccia. Jescot was not from Piemonte. He was a northern European trader who had come south and settled, at least for a time, in the hills of the Asti country. Standing godfather to an Italian painter's daughter was a social commitment, the kind that tied a foreigner to a specific village, a specific family, and a specific date. The land he owned in Cioccaro di Penango passed through different hands over four centuries, and commercial wine production did not begin there until 2001. The Sartirano cousins named the revived estate La Fiammenga.

From the atlas

Tenuta La Fiammenga

At A Glance

The Producer

The estate takes its name from a Flemish cloth merchant. Pietro Jescot owned the land at Cioccaro di Penango around the turn of the seventeenth century, and the Italian word for Flemish, fiammenga, became the property's name. Four centuries later, cousins Paolo and Guido Sartirano, fourth-generation wine producers, run the same land. They farm 30 hectares organically on the Asti side of Monferrato, grow Barbera, Grignolino and Freisa alongside Cabernet, Merlot and Sauvignon, and make their wines from estate-grown fruit harvested by hand.

Commercial production began in 2001. The estate's flagship is Pajon, a Barbera d'Asti DOCG Superiore made from 100% Barbera, fermented whole by a method Paolo Sartirano calls vinificazione materica: the grapes are destemmed without being crushed and fermented slowly in 500-litre tonneaux with prolonged skin contact. It goes well beyond the region's lighter, everyday style.

Place

Cioccaro di Penango sits on the Asti side of Monferrato, the broad hill country of southern Piemonte that runs south and east from the Langhe. Monferrato is not a single appellation but a landscape that contains several: Barbera d'Asti DOCG covers much of the southern section, and Superiore wines have more body and concentration than standard Barbera d'Asti. Grignolino is one of the traditional varieties grown at the estate.

The Asti side of Monferrato places the estate on clay-rich terrain that holds warmth and moisture through the growing season. Barbera planted here tends toward dark, full-bodied wines with high natural acidity, which makes the grape well suited to the kind of prolonged maceration that vinificazione materica applies.

Soil And Site

Agronomist Carlo Arnulfo conducted a soil study across the estate's vineyards. The analysis identified three soil types in combination: marl, blue clays and Asti sands. The marl and blue clays date to the Zanclean and Piacenzian geological ages, periods of marine sediment deposit that left mineral-rich, compact substrates across much of the Monferrato hills. The Asti sands, a lighter sandy layer, contribute drainage and give vine roots differentiated access across the 25 planted hectares. This combination of compact clay and looser sand creates variable growing conditions within a single estate, which the Sartiranos have addressed with targeted replanting rather than uniform management.

Story

When Paolo and Guido Sartirano inherited the Cioccaro di Penango land, the vineyards had not been in commercial production. The family committed to a full revival: a soil study with Carlo Arnulfo identified where each variety could perform, replanting began across significant portions of the 25 vine hectares, and organic farming was adopted across the whole estate. The cousins chose to start with the most Monferrato-specific grapes available, Grignolino d'Asti and Barbera d'Asti, rather than lead with the Cabernet and Merlot already planted on the property.

The cellar work that followed was Paolo Sartirano's. His vinificazione materica method takes Barbera grapes whole into 500-litre tonneaux, destemmed but uncrushed, and leaves them in slow fermentation with extended skin contact. The approach draws out colour, tannin and the aromatic register of the grape without forcing extraction, and places Pajon clearly above the light, quick-drinking category that much regional Barbera d'Asti occupies.

Vineyards And Cellar

All 30 hectares are farmed organically, with 25 hectares in productive vines or undergoing replanting. Harvest is manual with careful selection of ripe bunches at pick, which gives the cellar clean, sorted fruit. The variety mix spans both traditional Piemontese grapes and international varieties: Barbera, Grignolino and Freisa on one side; Cabernet, Merlot and Sauvignon on the other.

In the cellar, vinificazione materica defines the house approach for Barbera. The grapes are destemmed without crushing, preserving the berry intact, then moved into 500-litre tonneaux where fermentation proceeds slowly with the skins in prolonged contact with the must. The tonneaux size sits between a standard barrique and a large foudre, giving gentle oxygen exchange without dominating the fruit with wood character. The slow fermentation extracts colour and tannin gradually, producing a wine with firm body and deep colour rather than the bright, light style associated with quickly fermented Barbera. No artificial clarification or aggressive filtration interrupts the process.

Wines

The range centres on Piemontese appellations. Pajon, the estate flagship, is classified as Barbera d'Asti DOCG Superiore: 100% Barbera, made by vinificazione materica. At 15% alcohol, it is a dense wine with dark fruit, a balsamic note, firm body and the characteristic bright acidity that keeps Barbera alive despite its weight.

Grignolino d'Asti, one of the estate's founding wines from 2001, is a varietal wine made from estate-grown Grignolino, one of the estate's traditional Monferrato grapes, with ripe bunches selected by hand.

Beyond Pajon and Grignolino d'Asti, the range includes a varietal Freisa, a blend of Merlot, Cabernet and Barbera, a blend of Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, and a Pinot Noir sparkling rosé aged on its lees.

In The Glass

Pajon opens with dense dark fruit, violet and a balsamic lift that is characteristic of Barbera grown on clay-rich Monferrato soils. In the mouth, the body is firm and full, the tannin noticeably present for a variety that often delivers very little. The bright acidity that Barbera carries naturally cuts through the weight and keeps the finish alive, pulling toward something savoury and dry rather than heavy or sweet. The 15% alcohol is integrated, not hot.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with Pajon, Barbera d'Asti DOCG Superiore. It is 100% Barbera from organically farmed Monferrato clay, made by vinificazione materica: whole destemmed berries, 500-litre tonneaux, slow fermentation, prolonged skin contact. The wine comes out dark ruby with dense fruit, violet and balsamic on the nose, firm body and high-tannin grip unusual for the appellation, and a long savoury finish kept alive by Barbera's natural acidity. It runs at 15% alcohol with no sense of heat. Pajon is where the cellar method and the grape's character are most fully expressed, and where the estate's distance from lighter, quicker Barbera d'Asti styles is most clear.

Anecdote

In 1596, a Flemish cloth merchant named Pietro Jescot stood as godfather at the baptism of Theodora, the daughter of Monferrato painter Guglielmo Caccia. Jescot was not from Piemonte. He was a northern European trader who had come south with his bolts of fabric and settled, temporarily or otherwise, in the hills of the Asti country. The act of standing godfather to an Italian painter's daughter was a social commitment, the kind that tied a foreigner to a particular village, a particular family, and a particular date. The land he owned in Cioccaro di Penango passed through different hands over the following four centuries, and commercial wine production did not begin there until 2001. The Sartirano cousins named the revived estate La Fiammenga.

Final Word

Tenuta La Fiammenga is a small organic estate doing something specific with Barbera: slowing the fermentation, extending the skin contact, and drawing out a wine that has more body, tannin and complexity than the appellation typically delivers. The history reaches back to a seventeenth-century Flemish merchant, but the wines are firmly in the present. Pajon is the bottle to find.

Sources

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