Marco Rizzardi, Crocizia

Marco Rizzardi, Azienda Crocizia
Emilia, Italy

Crocizia is a small farm located 500 m high in the mountains on the left side of the river Parma about 1 km from the village Pastorello.

Born 15 years ago by recovering a small farm abandoned for years. After having restored the old structure, they decided to plant the vines, ripping nearly one hectare of land of the mountains in a place that they consider special, a natural terrace overlooking the river Parma. The vineyard is surrounded by woods, meadows and fruit trees extension for total of five hectares. It consists of malvasia di Candia and Sauvignon for white grapes, Barbera, Croatina and Pinot Noir.

They are small growers and believe that wine should be first and foremost a natural product, alive and constantly evolving, recognizable and unique. In doing so, they try to respect the relationship between plants and the land that makes them grow, in the most strictest way accepting what nature gives us throughout the year, without adjusting and forcing it.

The ground limestone with marl surfacing (formerly here was a lime quarry) gives the wine a particular minerality and a great freshness. For about 50 years this land has not been cultivated and fertilized; this has helped to enrich the soil both in organics and minerals. They try to respect these characteristics, intervening as little as possible in the winery to maintain an integral and balanced wine being at the same time genuine and different. They do not use additives, clarifying agents, stabilizers, yeasts or enzymes and do not filter the wine.

Since 2003 they have chosen to follow the method of biological cultivation as an approach towards an agriculture in the total respect of nature and health of consumers.