What is Fattoria Zerbina best known for?

Fattoria Zerbina is best known for Scacco Matto, a noble-rot Albana Passito DOCG that has won Gambero Rosso's Tre Bicchieri five times since 1996, alongside its Marzeno cru Sangiovese under Romagna Sangiovese Superiore Riserva DOC. Cristina Geminiani's botrytis bottling, first released in 1987, helped make Romagna Albana the region's first white DOCG.

Who owns and runs Fattoria Zerbina?

The estate is owned and run by Cristina Geminiani, granddaughter of founder Vincenzo Geminiani, who bought the Marzeno land in 1966. Cristina took charge of the cellar and vineyards in 1987 and has overseen every wine since.

Where is Fattoria Zerbina and how do I get there?

The cellar is at Via Vicchio 11, in the hamlet of Marzeno just south of Faenza in the Ravenna province of Emilia-Romagna. It sits roughly an hour southeast of Bologna and forty minutes inland from the Adriatic coast at Ravenna.

Can you visit Fattoria Zerbina for a tasting?

Yes. Visits and tastings run by appointment through the estate's own portal at visit.zerbina.com, where dates and formats are listed. Booking ahead is required.

Is Fattoria Zerbina an organic winery?

Yes. The estate is enrolled in the EU Misura 11 organic-agriculture measure and farms its 29 hectares in Marzeno under organic practices, including alberello bush-vine training and high planting densities for both Albana and Sangiovese.

What grapes does Fattoria Zerbina grow?

Fattoria Zerbina grows Albana and Sangiovese as its two anchor varieties, with smaller plantings of Trebbiano Romagnolo and complementary international grapes used in its Ravenna IGT blends. Albana goes into both the dry Bianco di Ceparano and the late-harvest Passito wines; Sangiovese drives the Pietramora, Poggio Vicchio and Monografia bottlings from the Marzeno cru.

Fattoria Zerbina

Emilia Romagna, Italy

Fattoria Zerbina sits in the Marzeno hills outside Faenza, where Cristina Geminiani has been refining Romagna's two great grapes, Albana and Sangiovese, since she took over the family estate in 1987. The cellar is best known for Scacco Matto, a noble-rot Albana Passito that helped earn Romagna its first white DOCG, alongside a rigorous range of Sangiovese drawn from the Marzeno cru.

Emilia Romagna
Tastings
Tours
Accommodation
Walk-ins welcome

Wines from Fattoria Zerbina

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Experiences at Fattoria Zerbina

Bookable experiences, curated by our editors. External booking where marked.

TASTING

Cellar visit and tasting

Guided visit and tasting at the Marzeno estate. Dates and formats are managed through the winery's own booking portal.

Book this experience

TASTING

Cellar visit and tasting

Guided visit and tasting at the Marzeno estate. Dates and formats are managed through the winery's own booking portal.

Book this experience

About Fattoria Zerbina

The estate climbs the clay-limestone slopes above Faenza in eastern Romagna, the strip of Emilia-Romagna where Albana and Sangiovese have been worked for centuries. Vincenzo Geminiani bought the land in 1966; his granddaughter Cristina took the cellar in 1987 and rebuilt the vineyard around alberello bush vines, planting Sangiovese at 7,500 to 11,000 stocks per hectare and Albana at 5,000, double the local norm. The 29 hectares now run as a single estate, and the 140,000 vines that anchor it are still trained low to the ground. Cristina's signature wine arrived almost as soon as she did. Scacco Matto, first bottled in 1987, is a late-harvest Albana picked grape by grape during the noble-rot pass through the vineyard, then fermented slowly in small stainless tanks and used French oak. Gambero Rosso has awarded it Tre Bicchieri across five decades (1996, 2001, 2004, 2013, 2016), and the Romagna Albana Passito DOCG it helped define remains the appellation's calling card. The companion bottling Arrocco offers a less concentrated reading of the same idea, while AR Riserva captures only the most charged vintages. Sangiovese gets the same forensic treatment. Five clones have been trialled since 1987, with the Marzeno cru providing the backbone for Pietramora, Poggio Vicchio and the single-vineyard Monografia. The Riserva bottlings sit inside Romagna Sangiovese Superiore Riserva DOC, a category Romagna built precisely to give its hill-grown Sangiovese a definitive expression. The estate's IGT reds Marzieno and Antitesi sit alongside as more open-textured experiments under the Ravenna Rosso IGT umbrella, while Bianco di Ceparano carries the dry face of Albana under Romagna Albana Secco DOCG. Visits run by appointment through visit.zerbina.com, the cellar's own booking portal. The estate is committed to organic farming under the EU Misura 11 measure, and Cristina herself often hosts industry tastings; for a hillside cellar an hour south of Bologna, Zerbina is one of the more direct ways to taste why Romagna treats Albana and Sangiovese as equally serious propositions.

Editorial · ItalianWines.co.uk

Visiting Fattoria Zerbina

Editorially verified by ItalianWines.co.uk.

Tastings

Available

Tours

Not offered

Accommodation

Not available

Booking

Walk-ins OK

Plan your visit

zerbina.com/

Via Vicchio, 11, 48010 Marzeno, Ravenna (Emilia Romagna)

+39 054640022

[email protected]

Plate I · EMILIA ROMAGNA