Cinque Quinti winery: a math class from Monferrato

I’ve never understood math thoroughly.

But I was good enough with fractions. Thanks to the infallible cake system, everything seemed more clear: you divide the cake into equal portions, the missing part had already been eaten, while the remaining part was still to consume.

Easy, isn’t it?

What left me a little bit perplexed was… how was it possible that dividing a number for itself, the result was 1?

I have always thought that 1 was one of the magic answers, together with zero and infinitive, and all those “tricky” questions.

Cinque Quinti wine bar helped me explaining that the result was not random at all!

Cinque Quinti is the name of Cella Monte winery, situated in the heart of Monferrato, entirely ruled by five brothers, three brothers and two sisters exactly, that divided among themselves the tasks of the factory to work for a simple, extraordinary and unique project: a family farm. Everyone with his skills, everyone in his way.

I “met them” for the first time, random, on the social, and, or for the enthusiasm with whom they tell the daily life in the farm, or for the attracting smiles or for the twist of their lives, they made me feel part of them.

I belong to a numerous family as well and I’ve always had the dream of realizing something big with my sisters. For this reason it was love at first sight between me and Cinque Quinti. So, when I had the chance to ask Martina some questions, then member of Vinhood team, I made them!

 CINQUE QUINTI STORY

Cinque Quinti story starts in 2010 when grandpa Mario gives to his two nephews, Fabrizio and Michele, 10 hectares of own grounds since four generations: in this way Arditi Brothers’ farm was born.

“My grandpa was a charismatic and cutting-edge man. He didn’t want my father to become a farmer and he pushed him to study and work somewhere else.”

But dad Giuseppe has always helped my grandpa and his big passion for this work has been handed down to the older grandsons since they were children.

“The grandpa often brought them on his shoulders in the vineyards. He revealed them all the secrets that a good peasant from Piedmont could never tell ever under torture! He believed a lot in our hills and our vineyards in which he worked for years with love; for a period he produced also his own wine”.

Harvest 2019

From 2010 to 2015, the farm moves from 10 hectares to nearly one hundred, in which 50 hectares were planted with vines and the remaining part with poplars, cereals, sunflowers, nuts and even truffles.

“At that time I lived abroad, I worked in another domain (that of digital marketing), but I continued to come back here, in this heaven on earth, thinking that there was something else we could do”.

Precisely: relaunching a fresh and young company brand through a line of quality wines. With it, it was possible to evaluate not also local cultures, but also all the region of Monferrato. An area of excellence for many years devoted only to industry and not to tourism.

So, after a brainstorming among the five brothers, from the harvest grapes of 2015, to October 2016, a new company brand was born: Cinque Quinti.

“At the beginning it seemed nearly a game: more than 700 bottles needed a name and a dress. My sister Francesca, that works in the fashion domain, and I, have never thought to work together in the company of Fabri and Michi, but, we liked a lot the idea of caring about communication and marketing.”

So, from that NEVER of the two sisters, up to the production of more than 20.000 bottles in a while.A while made of a lot of work, commitment, dedication by everyone, parents included. Behind this 9 years of activity by the guys and also the last 4 years with the participation of Martina and Francesca, there are a lot of hours of the so called “free-time”, used to create Cinque Quinti.

“We made a lot of events, projects, collaborations, sales, we created the website and the e-commerce, we have participated to contests, we have studied, laughed, cried and shared everything. With next graphic restyling in autumn 2019, we can officially say that our game became reality!”

Cinque Quinti HQ

THE LABELS 

The four labels are: the #Outgoing Arneis, #Witty Chardonnay Mariulin, and then Barbera, vinified in two styles, one more fresh and direct, the #Charismatic Carisa, and one more structured and important, like #Sage Roverò. A production that aims to simplicity and frankness, where the use of wood, when asked, is never exaggerated, but finalized to create harmony and fullness of flavor. In 2020 the five guys will go out with other two labels, but now I don’t want to reveal anything about them!

Another big news of the year will be the requalification of the Educational Farm, a space obtained from the ex stable, to become a place for meeting and sharing, tasting and education for old and young people.

THE “QUINTO/QUINTO”

But wait a second, we have always talked about the five brothers, but we haven’t said anything about the Quinto/Quinto, Mario.

Mario in Australia

Martina talks about him with a smile on her mouth and the affection in the eyes. You can soon notice that she’s the older sister and feels a special feeling for him, a mix of protection and sane envy for his life, yet to be explored..also because he reminds her life some years ago.

Mario has a few more than twenty years, he loves traveling and he sometimes escapes to travel around the world reassuring his family with:

“Dad, mum, I go one year abroad to learn new enological techniques”.

(Mario, please, I’m the youngest of the four sisters and it was the same for me. I used your same strategy when I went to New Zealand, then Chile, and then around Europe. An advice? Continue in this way because it works. The truth? Mario, sooner or later you will have to work. Really? Yes, really.)

But Martina is confident and is certain of having him in her “team” in a short period, after the experience in Colorado and Au

stralia, he started to attend the faculty of Enology.

MARTINA AND HER ENTRANCE IN VINHOOD

At this point it does raise a question:

“After the quantity of work that you have in the company, why did you think to work also with the start-up Vinhood?”

“I have listened something about you regarding a project of relaunching Monferrato region and your purpose intrigued me. At that time I was working with an agency of communication, when suddenly, the light bulb came on.

I understood that it was the time to dedicate myself entirely to the world of wine- my first diploma of sommelier testifies it! – But if I wanted to be a real contribute to my company I had to sharpen my skills of communication and marketing in this sector. Vinhood seemed the ideal place of growth because it is fresh and future-oriented, like I would like Cinque Quinti to be”.

After this chat with Martina I understood two things: behind a whole number, there is a fraction of numbers that helps it to be in this way and that I will have always a lot and a lot of problems with math.

I just have to envy all these heroic wine lover that have had the courage of making something big, together!

One for everyone, five for one!