Stefano Bellotti

The Essentials Winemaking is Stefano Bellotti’s primary craft, and 1977 is the year attached to that role in his story. Read that date as a marker of duration: the work is built on time in contact with vine, soil, and cellar, with the place allowed to define the result rather than be pushed into a preset style. His method is laid out in his own words: “Before starting to vinify Riesling by direct-pressing it, I took the time to taste many wines made on this type of terroir.” The line describes process with unusual clarity. Bellotti’s practice begins with tasting, comparison, and reference points; only then does he move to the press. The sequence matters. Study first, intervention second.

Signature

Filagnotti, Montemarino, Mounbè, and A Demûa are Stefano’s signature wines, and they are the clearest evidence of his cellar language. These names identify the bottles through which his work is most readily read, each one carrying the same hand while holding its own shape. Taken together, Filagnotti, Montemarino, Mounbè, and A Demûa show how Bellotti builds recognition through consistency and variation. They sit at the center of his signature as distinct expressions of the same discipline: attention to texture, sensitivity to nuance, and restraint in the cellar. The bottles provide the comparison set; the craft is the continuity that links them.

In Their Words “Before starting to vinify Riesling by direct-pressing it, I took the time to taste many wines made on this type of terroir.” The statement is plain, and that is what makes it useful. It sets out a working sequence: taste first, then choose the method. Bellotti places emphasis on the character of the terroir, treating it as something to be understood before it is handled. Direct-pressing appears here as a decision reached through observation, not as a gesture for effect. The line points to a cellar practice based on comparison and restraint. In Bellotti’s own terms, the work begins with listening to precedent and place before the first move is made in the winery.