PDO Riviera Ligure EVO: new members in the Ponente and in the Tigullio area.

The 2020-2021 season features new members for the PDO Riviera Ligure EVO Consortium. Be they newly established businesses, or run by young entrepreneurs, they represent the matching between family tradition and solid training experiences in the agronomic field.

Let us start in the Ponente. The Azienda Agricola Beronà was established in 2019 by Riccardo Fazio, who took over his family’s plots land in the entroterra of Diano (Diano Arentino). He put his own agronomic know-how into practice, cultivating hundreds of plants in a land that has always been a cradle of olive growing. Rapidly (though in the toughest of times), he joined the PDO Riviera Ligure EVO family. The plots are named Valcrosa, ‘the narrow and closed valley’, Muntà, a classic steep uphill farming area, Cioso, the family’s plot, closed and sheltered, Villà, where there was once a village, and finally Rapitta, a recent term that may also indicate a previous vegetable crop.

Another new member in the Ponente: meet the Dinoabbo Azienda Agricola, now run by Gianni Abbo, in the Lucinasco area. Dino Abbo is an important name in the Ligurian extra virgin olive oil sector. Commitment to the recovery of olive growing, a very high level of expertise, the pursuit of quality and a strong commitment to making Lucinasco a reference point for oil production not only regionally, but also nationally and at Mediterranean level, in a farming context that is nothing short of heroic. Today, Dino’s son Gianni grows 9,500 olive trees.

As for the Levante, Mattia Basso’s Azienda Agricola Terre Verae is based in the Fontanabuona Valley. Established in 2019, it is the only PDO business in the area. Its headquarters are located in Ognio. The perfect match of hospitality, vines and olives. The plots are situated in Neirone, Moconesi, Tribogna and the famous Cinque Terre with the vineyard of Prevo, in Vernazza. The forty olive trees that produce the special “SOLO 40” label thrive in Ognio.

The Levante also boasts another new entry, Aldo Muzio’s Azienda Agricola, located in San Bernardino, on the hills of Sestri Levante. Family tradition meets modernity and goes organic. Simplicity, love for nature and above all a strong link with the territory. Tradition tells of an ancient “blood” mill, moved by a donkey, which operated the millstone, with a lever press. A mill that later turned electric, with two grindstones and finally a state-of-the-art continuous three-phase cycle. Aldo Muzio took over in 2010, concentrating on the trees: 1,200 mostly prized Lavagnina cultivar, as well as Taggiasca.