VIV Winery

VIV means "alive" in the local dialect, and that's the whole idea. The estate goes back four generations to Giovanni, who worked a single hectare here in the 1940s; his grandson Alessandro pushed it to three in the nineties, and it's now Alessandro and his daughters — Ilaria out front — who've turned it into a natural-wine house on a hill above San Marzano Oliveto. The grapes are the region's own: Barbera, Dolcetto, Moscato Bianco, with a bit of Sauvignon; the winemaking is low-intervention, so the bottles change with the vintage rather than chasing a house style.

Expect the unexpected — a Dolcetto pet-nat called Rocky (also the name of the family dog), skin-contact 'orange' whites, a Moscato di Canelli DOCG named Anima della Terra, and the L'Onirico reds. Tastings are by reservation only and closed Sundays: the classic runs six wines with a walk through the cellar and vineyard for twenty euros, or twenty-five with local cheese and salumi. Book on +39 334 854 5183 or through their visit page; Ilaria and her father host in Italian and English, and people tend to leave having talked as much about the family as the wine.