Lusenti, Colli Piacentini

The Colli Piacentini usually don't make the headlines. They sit quietly between Piacenza and the Apennines, producing wines that most people outside Italy have never heard of, but they have been on my radar for a long time.

Lusenti is a family estate of 20 hectares, farmed organically with an ambition to increase biodiversity in time. Two generations, two visions: like two artists, Ludovica creates wines closer to tradition; Martina pushes further, experimenting without losing the thread that connects everything back to the Val Tidone and its soils.

The focus is mostly on indigenous varieties. Not because it is fashionable, but because these grapes belong here and nowhere else. Two lines, two personalities — both telling the same story about the land, each in their own way.