‘Fermento’
The artist came to Brovia before he proposed anything. Multiple visits. Learning the estate, the people, the philosophy of Elena and Àlex before he offered a single idea.
Then he proposed both the label and its name: Fermento. The restlessness that drives evolution without breaking roots.
It is now permanently placed on the estate building. A figure in motion — purposeful, not chaotic. And the finite statement of it, a Barolo that is the fifth generation of an estate founded in Sinio in 1863, restarted in Castiglione Falletto in 1953, farmed across Rocche, Ca' Mia, Garblèt Süe, Villero by Elena's grandfather, then her father Giacinto, and now Elena and her partner Àlex Sanchez.
Àlex came from Spain. Through Burgundy. Through several serious cellars. He arrived in Castiglione Falletto by choice, not inheritance, which is either the harder path or the more deliberate one. Probably both.
What they make together is not a departure from what came before. The vines are old. The crus are the same crus. The label is new.
That is the whole argument of Fermento, if you want to make it into one: that an organism has to be alive to change, and a living thing that cannot change is only preserved. Elena has the proximity — the daily knowledge of these specific rows over decades. Àlex has the comparative perspective. Together they make wine that is rooted and restless at once.
The artist named what was already happening.
Brovia, Castiglione Falletto. Founded Sinio 1863, restarted Castiglione Falletto 1953. Elena Brovia and Àlex Sanchez lead the estate. Fifth generation beginning. Artist: Samuel Di Blasi
