The story begins in 1992, when Carlo Colombera, then an agricultural worker in Vercelli, decided to radically change his life. He purchased an old, dilapidated farmhouse in the municipality of Lessona, in Alto Piemonte (Italy), along with two hectares of semi-abandoned vineyards with the dream of making wine. What he did not realise at the time was that he was about to ignite a spark that would help revive one of Italy's oldest —and forgotten— wine regions.
Thirty years later, Carlo remains in the vineyard. He is joined by his two sons, Giacomo and Guglielmo, both qualified oenologists and passionate about the local grape varieties. Alongside them, a fourth name completes the quartet: Cristiano Garella, Giacomo's close friend and renowned oenologist who gained fame for his work at Tenuta Sella and whose knowledge of Alto Piemonte serves as an invaluable compass to guide this family project towards increasingly precise, expressive, and deeply territorial wines. Together, they form the soul of Colombera & Garella.
One of the great exemplars of this project is Bramaterra Cascina Cottignano, a wine born in the hills of Biella, where nebbiolo is locally known as Spanna and expresses itself uniquely, thanks to the volcanic soils and alpine climate. The blend is a classic of Alto Piemonte, featuring a very high percentage of nebbiolo alongside small proportions of vespolina and croatina, two indigenous grapes that add character, colour, and a spicy touch.
With a clear philosophy of respecting the soil and the plants, they practice sustainable viticulture, avoiding synthetic chemical products, and adopting a manual and natural approach at every stage. In the winery, vinification follows traditional methods of prolonged maceration, spontaneous fermentation, and maturation in barrels for two years.
Bramaterra Cascina Cottignano possesses the elegance of nebbiolo, yet with a firm minerality and a vibrant freshness that sets it apart from its southern counterparts. For the wine is born not only from the soil, but also from the courage to change one's life, to leave behind security in pursuit of intuition, to bet on a region many had written off as lost.