There are vintages that are remembered for their wine.
And then there are vintages that are remembered for what they represent.
For Vinchio Vaglio, 2025 was just that: a year that provided answers. Clear, concrete answers, at a time when the world of wine is undergoing uncertainty and repositioning. A year that ended with a surplus, zero inventory, and an even stronger corporate identity, both in Italy and abroad. But above all, a year that confirmed a simple and powerful truth: when the vision is clear and shared, the hills speak.
Vinchio Vaglio was founded in 1959 as a cooperative. A word that here has never been synonymous with compromise, but with alliance. Between men and women, between vineyards and cellars, between daily toil and future prospects. The goal has always been twofold and inseparable: to make quality wines and to recognize the economic dignity of the work of winegrowers.
For years, this balance was achieved through the sale of Barbera in bulk. Then, in the early 2000s, something changed. Under the presidency of Lorenzo Giordano, the winery chose a more challenging, slower, but decisive path: building value through packaged wine, identity, and recognizability. Today, that choice has become a reality: 100% of production is bottled, with around one million bottles and 700,000 bag-in-boxes traveling the world, carrying with them a precise idea of Barbera and the territory.
Behind those numbers are 500 hectares of vineyards, 80% of which are dedicated to this generous yet demanding grape variety. Steep hills, rocky outcrops that allow no shortcuts, plots that require slow, often manual labor. Those who have never seen them struggle to understand what it means to cultivate them. Here, viticulture is never neutral: it is choice, resistance, passion.
This is why Vinchio Vaglio continues to sell Barbera grapes at some of the highest prices in the area. Not as a marketing strategy, but out of consistency. Because recognizing the work means guaranteeing its future. And the future also depends on protecting a fragile and precious heritage: the old vines.
For decades, the winery has protected vineyards that are over 50 years old, the beating heart of wines such as Vigne Vecchie and Vigne Vecchie 50. Other rows, with more than thirty years behind them, give life to iconic labels such as I Tre Vescovi, Insynthesis, and Nizza Laudana, born from a hill that seems designed specifically to test man and reward wine.
Vinchio Vaglio recognizes these winegrowers with compensation commensurate with their efforts, which are not only agricultural but also cultural. It is also thanks to this approach that generational change is not just an empty phrase here. This commitment has received international attention with recognition from the Old Vine Conference, which selects producers around the world who are capable of preserving and enhancing old vineyards.
But Vinchio Vaglio knows that preserving is not enough: we must also take care of the present.
Being a cooperative means having a broader responsibility. This is why the winery is Equalitas certified, has been publishing its sustainability report for years, and works on three axes that cannot exist separately: territory, people, and economy. The choices are concrete: reduction of sulfites, lightweight bottles, technical corks where possible, bag-in-box packaging designed not as a refuge but as a conscious act, capable of reducing the carbon footprint and bringing quality wines to tables around the world. Added to this is energy self-sufficiency guaranteed by photovoltaics.
The link with the territory goes beyond the vineyard. Vinchio Vaglio contributed to the creation of the Val Sarmassa Regional Park, creating rest areas, art installations, a Big Bench, and trails that invite visitors to stop and look. Because here, the landscape is not just a backdrop: it is part of the story.
The awards received in 2025—from the Tre Bicchieri del Gambero Rosso to international medals, from scores above 90/100 from Decanter, Suckling, and Falstaff to prizes from the most prestigious competitions—are not a point of arrival. If anything, they are a silent confirmation of work that has been going on for years.
Yet those who run Vinchio Vaglio have never been the type to stand still. “We are proud of the results we have achieved,” says director Marco Giordano, “but we know that growth means continuing to invest.” New projects are already planned for 2026: the doubling of the bag-in-box packaging line and the restoration of the historic part of the 1959 winery, the heart of production with over 160 concrete tanks, silent witnesses to generations of harvests.
For Vinchio Vaglio, 2025 is not just a positive year.
It is proof that you can be a business without losing your soul, a cooperative without sacrificing excellence, modern while remaining deeply rooted.
And that, if you really listen, the hills always know how to respond.
