Bisson

He began purchasing small batches of grapes from farmers scattered across the area and vinifying them in his own cellar, carrying out numerous experiments with modern winemaking techniques to understand how to treat local grapes.

The excellent results obtained have made it possible to "revive" those native Ligurian wines which had now practically disappeared, such as the "Bianchetta Genovese" and the "Ciliegiolo" and to create new intuitions such as the "Musaico", a red wine of marked personality.

After a few years spent making wine from purchased grapes, aware of the fact that the wine is born "in the vineyard", he decided to plant his own vineyards, in order to achieve full control of the qualitative process of his wines.

Pierluigi Lugano begins to acquire vineyards in Trigoso, Campegli, Verici, Volastra and in the Cinque Terre. In the early 2000s he decided to produce a Classic Method sparkling wine with local grapes, but he didn't have an underground cellar for refinement and the obstacle seemed insurmountable: where to find the right conditions of dim light and temperatures, low and constant? Here comes the stroke of genius: at the bottom of the sea!

The sparkling wines of the "Abissi" line are born from the assembly of typical Tigullio grapes (Bianchetta, Vermentino, Cimixà) and from bottle aging 60 meters below sea level, at a constant temperature of 15°C, off the coast of Cala degli Inglesi, in the Portofino Marine Park. The bottles are placed in steel cages and placed on the seabed by professional divers. Once the refinement is complete, they are recovered for settling and disgorgement: when they return to the surface the bottles are works of art, embellished by time and rest in the depths of the sea. They are then wrapped in transparent film and then marketed.

The underwater adventure of the Bisson winery was initially hailed as madness or a science fiction idea but after having tasted the Classic Method sparkling wine "Abissi" the critics and the public agreed in recognizing Pierluigi's brilliant intuition, joining in the enthusiasm of the New York Times and of an ever-increasing number of admirers from all over the world.

Cultivation with "strict limitation of pesticides" is the latest challenge that is being pursued, with extreme conviction, in the vineyards to guarantee quality and authenticity.