Our wines

The wine cellar at Villa Desderi - La cantina – a guildhall like underground storage room for wine and produce – has been sandblasted and brought back to its original glory. 200 years old red bricks in a fishbone pattern under impressive arches. Unfortunately all the old barrels – some local and the old Slovenian oak barrels – were too old and full of fungi to revive and use in the forthcoming wine production. They have, however, been cleaned and is currently being used as decorations and is part of the wine tasting surroundings.

Cascina Desderi initiated its own wine production in 2004, when Trond and Roald took over the responsibility of the vines and the vineyard on November 11 the same year. From then on they have been in charge of pruning, binding, spraying, trimming, picking and harvesting – the whole process from pruning to barrel. The cantina is app. 100 square meters and is in immaculate condition and perfect for storing in barrels and bottles. With two vintages in bottles – 2004 and 2005 – and 2006 in barrels, Cascina Desderi offers wine tasting and other events under the arches of the old cellar.

Cascina Desderi’s first red wine was bottled in April/May 2006 and is currently ready for consumption. The Barbera Superiore wines are excellent for cellaring and will mature well in taste and bouquet over a 10 to 12 year span. Cascina Desderi produces three types of D.O.C. Barbera wines – Black, Red and White Labels.
Cascina Desderi’s vines enjoy full exposure to the sun from sunrise to sunset as they are set in an amphitheatre-like position facing south and south-west. The majority of our vines are from 1947. They are still strong and robust, and produce satisfactory yields. However, we are continually replanting and have replaced more than 2000 of the old vines in the past two years. The summer of 2004 was hot and dry with lots of sunshine that resulted in a bountiful harvest of high quality grapes. The 2004 and 2005 vintages offer excellent quality, full- bodied wines with a high level of alcohol for successful storing, while 2006 is expected to exceed the prior years’ vintages.

Skulpturen på DESDERI- etiketten er laget av en skulptør som heter Dimitri Chiparus. Nedenfor finner du informasjon om ham. Snittbildet er tatt av fotograf Grethe Arnstad. Denne etiketten bentyttes på alle Desderi-vinene, men med forskjellig bakgrunnsfarge. Etichette Rosso, Nero, Bianca etc. -Red, Black, White Label etc.

Dimitri Chiparus (1888 - 1950)
Born in Romania, Dimitri Chiparus immigrated to Paris, where he  studied under Anonin Mercier and Jean Boucher. He began to exhibit small sculptures, his very first showing at the Salon of the Societe des Artistes Francais in 1914 leading to an Honouable Mention. Louis Comfort Tiffany was also awarded an Honourable Mention that same year. Chiparus was an extremely prolific artist, producing a wide variety of mainly small-scale figures. These were executed generally either all in bronze or in bronze and ivory. Some designs were executed in both media, and a few occasionally in more than one size. A few figures were executed in spelter and ivorene though the white metal was cold painted in the same way as bronze, while the ivorene, which was cast, was painted in bright colors. Most of his figures were edited by the firm of Edmond Etling, though he executed a number of models for the firm of Arthur Goldscheider. Both of course had their own bronze foundries. He exhibited a bronze edited by Goldscheider at the 1928 Salon, La Danseuse Ta-Keo. His last recorded exhibit at the Salon was in 1939. Though his feminine figures and dancers made his reputation, he also produced a vast array of sculptures of children. Some are quite charming, often sentimental, but others were designed to appeal to slushy tastes that have become fashionable. He designed a number of colorful ceramic figures for Etling. Chiparus also executed a considerable number of religious figures. A few of his figures were edited by Editions Reveyrolis and some by Les Neveux de J Lehmann. Some of his bronzes were cast at the Marcel Guillemard foundry in Paris. He was awarded a prize at the Salon des Beaux Arts, in which several chryselphantine sculptors exhibited.

Sculpture by Dimitri Chipaurus