Ronchi di Castelluccio sits on the wooded Apennine slopes above Modigliana, in the Forli-Cesena hills of Romagna. Founded in 1974 as one of the region's first single-vineyard estates, the winery champions Sangiovese and Sauvignon Blanc grown on marl and sandstone at 300 to 400 metres altitude. Since 2020 the brothers Aldo and Paolo Rametta have led a careful restoration that returns each ronco, the small clearings that gave the estate its name, to its original cru identity.
Emilia Romagna
Wines for this winery are still being curated. Check back as the UK retailer selection expands.
Bookable experiences, curated by our editors. External booking where marked.
Guided one-hour walk through the Modigliana ronchi and the working cellar. The route covers the marl-and-sandstone bedrock, the single-vineyard zoning that has defined the estate since 1974, and the parcel-by-parcel vinification rooms.
Book this experienceFour-wine flight that pairs the long-running Le More (Sangiovese) and Lunaria (Sauvignon Blanc) icons with the Rametta-era Buco del Prete (Sangiovese) and Sottovento (Sauvignon Blanc), tracing the estate's stylistic evolution.
Book this experienceSix-wine tasting that moves from the contemporary labels through the new classics into the icon cru wines, including Ronco del Re Sauvignon Blanc and Ronco della Simia Sangiovese.
Book this experienceFlagship flight dedicated to the four cru wines: Ronco del Re Sauvignon Blanc, Ronco Casone and Ronco della Simia Sangiovese, and Il Poggiolo Cabernet Sauvignon. Optional local platter or one-course meal can be added in advance.
Book this experienceGuided one-hour walk through the Modigliana ronchi and the working cellar. The route covers the marl-and-sandstone bedrock, the single-vineyard zoning that has defined the estate since 1974, and the parcel-by-parcel vinification rooms.
Book this experienceThe estate was conceived in 1974 by Gian Vittorio Baldi, the film director and intellectual, who set out to make precision wine on cold, wooded land that most Romagna growers had ignored. Baldi worked with the agronomist Remigio Bordini and the oenologist Vittorio Fiore on what became one of Italy's earliest single-vineyard zoning experiments, and Luigi Veronelli championed the project from its first vintages. The vines selected then, low-yielding clones of Sangiovese and Sauvignon Blanc, still anchor the cellar today. Modigliana is mountain viticulture with a sea memory. The hills above the Acerreta valley rise to nearly 400 metres on slopes carved from ancient seabed, and the soils are a stratification of marl (clay) and sandstone (sand) laid down when the Adriatic still covered the territory. The Adriatic breeze tempers summer heat, the woods close in around every parcel, and on foggy mornings the ridges read as islets above a white sea. Each ronco, a clearing of about one hectare reclaimed from the forest by hand, holds its own aspect, altitude and bedrock. Nine ronchi feed nine wines. Ronco del Re, the flagship Sauvignon Blanc planted in 1974, ages in low-toast Allier and Vosges barriques and is bottled under Colli di Faenza DOC, with just 833 bottles released each vintage. Ronco Casone, Ronco della Simia and Ronco dei Ciliegi all carry the Romagna Sangiovese Modigliana DOC sub-zone, each from a different exposure and bedrock blend. Il Poggiolo is a north-west-facing Cabernet Sauvignon that nods to the founder's Bordeaux pilgrimages. Sottovento, Buco del Prete, Le More and Lunaria fill out the New Classics and Young Rebels ranges, with Sottovento bottled as Rubicone IGT. Yields are deliberately small: 20 to 25 quintals per hectare for the reds, 12 for Ronco del Re. The vineyards are hand-worked, grassed between rows, and treated only with copper and sulphur. Vinifications are kept separate by parcel, fermentation runs in steel or large oak vats, and ageing finishes in toasted French oak from the forests of Allier, Vosges and Tronçais before further time in bottle. The brothers Aldo and Paolo Rametta acquired the estate in 2020 and placed it inside a wider integrated farm. Their sister winery Poggio della Dogana, near Brisighella, works 20 hectares of certified organic Sangiovese and Albana, while a 390-hectare organic cattle farm added in 2023 carries the Suolo e Salute leaf and supplies zero-mile compost back to the Modigliana vines. Around 65,000 bottles leave the cellar each vintage, the larger share to Italian restaurants and the rest to a small group of importers across Europe and the United States.
Editorially verified by ItalianWines.co.uk.
Plate I · EMILIA ROMAGNA
Tastings
Tours
Accommodation
Booking required 
3
