De Fermo Concrete Vino Rosso

Montepulciano

Abruzzo

The story of De Fermo, a relatively new estate founded in 2010 by Stefano Papetti Ceroni and his wife Eloisa de Fermo, is an unconventional one. Originally from Bologna, Stefano does not come from an agricultural background but nonetheless took interest in wine at a very young age. He began a tasting group with his friends in high school (including his best friend Federico Orsi) and started visiting wineries as soon as he was old enough to do so. By Stefano's early 20's, wine had become his passion. In 2007, seven years after the couple had met, Eloisa proposed they visit her family farm in Abruzzo; it that had been in the de Fermo family for generations, but she had no real connection to it.  Not expecting much, Stefano was shocked to discover a sprawling, ancient property with a rich history.

Stefano fell hard for the De Fermo farm. In the winter of 2007, he began spending every weekend in Abruzzo, learning from the contadini hired by Eloisa's family to run the property. He eventually asked his father-in-law if he could manage a hectare of vines to teach himself viticulture, providing a first glimpse of what owning a winery could be like. Today, almost all of the grapes go into the estate's independent production. For vines, 11 hectares of Montepulciano are planted along with 2.5 hectares of Pecorino, 2.5 hectares of Chardonnay and and 0.5 hectares of experimental white grapes including Trebbiano and other white varieties.