Bera Azienda Agricola is located between Alba and Asti in the marvelous Piedmont region of Italy. This area is well-known by food lovers thanks to the Alba truffle, chocolate but also its beautiful wines. The family Bera has been growing vines for centuries here and they are producing their own wines for more than 50 years now. Their love for Moscato is really strong and if today many wineries are following their footsteps, they remain the place of birth of high quality Moscato. Valter Bera, the winemaker, and his wife are committed to tradition, respect and passion which they transmitted successfully to their two sons.
VertdeVin: Why have you decided to make wine?
Valter Bera: I was born in the middle of the viticultural area where there was a strong tradition of producing wine. At school originally I wanted to study English but in 1968 it was difficult, not available, so I changed the school and went to the college where 90% of my classmates were from the Enological School of Alba. At that time my family already possessed around 10
hectares of vineyards, so seeing my classmates producing wine, I decided to follow in their footsteps. Thus, in 1971 I bottled my first Moscato. At that time most of the Moscatos were of very poor quality, so a good Moscato was a novelty. We quickly acquired a good reputation for our Moscato among the critics and restaurateurs and even today when people hear “Bera” they
think of Moscato.
What differentiates your wine from the others?
V.B.: It is a difficult question. Before our Moscato stood out because of its quality while today there are many producers who make a very high quality Moscato. To keep an excellent quality is complicated, everything starts from the vineyard and then continues in the winery. Even a small mistake like missing the day of a treatment or a bad racking might spoil the quality. Today we have to hire foreign vineyard workers who come for a season. Of course, we explain them the techniques and give general guidelines but at the end every vine is different and needs an individual approach. A worker with 20 years of
experience can see it while a temporary one can probably not. So, after the initial pruning, we need to go to the vineyards and double-check. Sometimes we can correct the mistakes, sometimes it is already too late to fix.
How many hectares do you have? How many different labels do you produce?
What is the total annual production?
V.B.: We have 30 hectares, out of which 50% is Moscato and other 50% are planted with different grapes, such as Barbera and Nebbiolo. The total production is around 240.000 bottles per year.
Thanks to Valter Bera for sharing his time -Valeria Tenison
Azienda Agricola Bera
Via Castellero Cascina Palazzo, 12 – 12050 Neviglie (Cn) Italy
www.bera.it
