Right next to the Qimisola winery there was a house belonging to the mother of Graziella. Her husband Bruno is a wine farmer and specialist in making great tasting salamis. Over the years as neighbours we have developed sweet bond to Graziella and Bruno. Just like in Chinese proverbs goes, "a close neighbour counts much more than far relatives"!
Unfortunately Graziella mother passed away at 94 years and two years ago, we took over the property and the Barbera vineyard belong to it. The Qimisola vision expanded... Eventually, we want to turn the property into a warehousing downstairs with a multifunctional wine tasting and meeting facility upstairs.
But the Covid-19 taught us to slow down, enjoy more. Currently, we are doing it "piano piano" with Italian fashion. The project has been scaled into different stages. Till October this year, we hope to finish the first stage, the warehouse, production room and wine tasting cellar. We are going to put in place a modern temperature controlled storage room, an operating space for botteling and labelling activities while maintaining the authentic structure of the house.
The small wine cellar behind the house is a nice hidden treasure. Though much smaller than Qimisola house's cellar, it's size is perfect to convert into a tasting room for future guests. Retaining as much as possible the old brick texture. The real look of the cellar unveiled after the sandblasting.
There are so much more potential we can envision for restoring this property. It's not a small undertaking. But doing it step by step enable us to focus on the real needs, make right decisions while let the rest of the vision brew with time.
