Durin is a family winery in Ortovero, in Liguria's Arroscia Valley, where Antonio Basso farms eighteen hectares of terraced vineyards above the Riviera Ligure di Ponente. The estate is the home of saline, age-worthy Pigato and a classic-method sparkling line called Bàsura that finishes its lees ageing inside the prehistoric Toirano Caves. Three generations of the Basso family work the steep slopes between seventy and six hundred metres, bottling Pigato, Vermentino, Rossese, Granaccia, Ormeasco di Pornassio and Lumassina without an outside oenologist.
Liguria
Bookable experiences, curated by our editors. External booking where marked.
Cellar visit and seated tasting of two still whites and two still reds, served with a board of homemade and local cured meats and cheeses. Small groups only, by appointment. Cellar wheelchair-accessible. Children and pets welcome at the table.
Book this experienceCellar visit and seated tasting that swaps two of the wines for older vintages, with one white and one red poured at each course alongside the current-vintage pair. Small groups only, by appointment. Same access and minimum-party rules as the Basic experience.
Book this experienceCellar visit and seated tasting of two still whites and two still reds, served with a board of homemade and local cured meats and cheeses. Small groups only, by appointment. Cellar wheelchair-accessible. Children and pets welcome at the table.
Book this experienceDurin sits in Ortovero, a small village in the inland slopes of the Riviera Ligure di Ponente. The estate was founded in 1978 by Antonio Basso, who walked away from medical school in his twenties to take over a vineyard his father Angelo had been planting since the 1920s, and a farming legacy his grandfather Isidoro had begun before that. The Durin name is a tribute to that grandfather. Antonio still farms and vinifies without an outside oenologist, working from inherited knowledge and four decades of his own experiments in vineyard and cellar.
The eighteen hectares of vineyard lie between seventy and six hundred metres above sea level, on terraces cut into steep slopes and held up by drystone walls that the family maintains by hand. This is heroic viticulture in the literal sense, with most plots only reachable by 4x4 or caterpillar tractor. Pigato is the flagship grape, but the cellar also bottles Vermentino, Rossese, Ormeasco di Pornassio, Granaccia, Alicante, Lumassina, Mataosso and a small parcel of Syrah, all shaped by the salt-loaded sea breeze that pushes up the Arroscia valley from the Ligurian coast.
The white range is the heart of Durin. Parcel-selected Pigato bottlings such as I S-Cianchi, Gèva and Braie age for several years and develop the herbal, saline character that locals associate with the appellation. Reds focus on the Ligurian trio of Rossese, Granaccia and Ormeasco di Pornassio, joined by an Ormeasco passito and a Sciac-Trà rosé from the same grape. The Bàsura sparkling line is the estate's most distinctive project: classic-method bottles, including a Pas Dosé, that finish their lees ageing inside the Toirano Caves, the prehistoric Neanderthal site a short drive south of the winery.
The Bassos describe themselves as custodians of a fragile territory, and the practice matches the language. The winery runs on renewable energy, monitors phenology vine by vine, harvests rainwater into drip lines for emergency irrigation, and keeps goats, donkeys, chickens, ducks and geese on site for manure, eggs and dairy. The estate also presses unfiltered extra virgin olive oil and distils Pigato and Vermentino grappa from its own pomace.
Visits run by appointment only, between 20 April and 31 October. Antonio's wife Laura leads small groups through the cellar and a tasting of two whites and two reds with homemade cured meats and cheeses, while the Vintage option steps back into older releases of the same wines. The cellar is wheelchair-accessible and the family welcomes children and pets at the table.
Editorially verified by ItalianWines.co.uk.
Plate I · LIGURIA
Est. 1978 
3 wines 
Tastings
Tours
Accommodation
Booking required 
