The Torelli Winery holds a record: the first Italian Organic Wine placed on the market was the Moscato d’Asti produced from the vineyards of Gianfranco Torelli.
THE HISTORY
In the 1987, together to my parents Marisa and Mario, we decided to put into practice the rules of Organic Agriculture. Subsequently in 1991 the European Economic Community with the Regulation CEE 2092/91 began to dictate the first organic cultivation rules for the Member States. Starting from the 1992 vintage, therefore, the wineries that demonstrated that they had at least 3 years of cultivation with the organic method could begin to certify their wines as “obtained from grapes from organic farming”. So our winery was the first, in January 1993, to obtain the T000001 certification for its Moscato d’Asti 1992: therefore, the first certified Organic wine from organically grown grapes in Italy was born in our cellars.
THE THOUGHT OF GIANFRANCO TORELLI
“The first European Community regulation of Organic was the 2092 of 1991 and the 1992 wine year was therefore the first to be able to boast the declaration on the label of the words: Wines obtained from grapes from organic farming; so fate wanted that my Moscato d’Asti DOCG vintage 1992 is the first certified organic wine in Italy. In fact, I am honored to keep the first authorization of organic labels issued by Agri.Bio Piemonte which bears the number AIB I027 T000001. We have always believed in organic and when the CEE regulation 2092/91 was approved, we did our utmost to obtain organic certification. In those years we were very few to talk about organic, it was really must believe in it: the sensitivity of consumers was very different from where also large companies and large retailers cannot do without it and have increasingly vast organic departments. It has never been a fashion for us. It has always been our way of living the territory, cultivating vines and producing wine in a truly sustainable way, without slogans or fundamentalisms but through a hard daily commitment to respect nature”.
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