In 1977, just eighteen years old, Stefano Bellotti took over the family farm, located on the border between Piedmont and Liguria, in Novi Ligure. The company, owned by the Bellotti family since 1930, is located within the DOCG Gavi, and was used by his father, a doctor, to escape from the city. Stefano began with various crops and a small hectare of vineyards; furthermore, thanks to the meeting with one of his first teachers, Pietro Toccalino, a neighbor, he learned the basics of winemaking. Stefano made two crucial choices that radically characterize everything that Cascina degli Ulivi represents today: the first is the path of viticulture, partly forced by the morphology and physiognomy of the land, acid-ferrous clay, not generous and difficult to cultivate; the second is the ecological agricultural approach, a political choice as well, considered strongly anti-progressive at the time, and therefore more difficult than ever. His wines, all from spontaneous fermentation, without the addition of sulfur dioxide and outside the DOC, have restored value and dignity to the Cortese grape and are among the few capable of telling the story of a territory disfigured by legislation, oenology and the market, which today produces wines devoid of any depth. Among the most representative wines are Filagnotti and Montemarino, the two souls of Cascina degli Ulivi.

In 1977, just eighteen years old, Stefano Bellotti took over the family farm, located on the border between Piedmont and Liguria, in Novi Ligure. The company, owned by the Bellotti family since 1930, is located within the DOCG Gavi, and was used by his father, a doctor, to escape from the city. Stefano began with various crops and a small hectare of vineyards; furthermore, thanks to the meeting with one of his first teachers, Pietro Toccalino, a neighbor, he learned the basics of winemaking. Stefano made two crucial choices that radically characterize everything that Cascina degli Ulivi represents today: the first is the path of viticulture, partly forced by the morphology and physiognomy of the land, acid-ferrous clay, not generous and difficult to cultivate; the second is the ecological agricultural approach, a political choice as well, considered strongly anti-progressive at the time, and therefore more difficult than ever. His wines, all from spontaneous fermentation, without the addition of sulfur dioxide and outside the DOC, have restored value and dignity to the Cortese grape and are among the few capable of telling the story of a territory disfigured by legislation, oenology and the market, which today produces wines devoid of any depth. Among the most representative wines are Filagnotti and Montemarino, the two souls of Cascina degli Ulivi.