Artificial nests to house Great Tits, Redstarts and other insectivores useful for the natural balance of the vineyards: this is the original and important environmental initiative launched by the Ricci Curbastro Company, the historic family of winemakers in Franciacorta that produces wines that are requested and appreciated all over the world.
The originality of the project "The Three Lives of the Tree" covers not only environmental but also humanitarian aspects. In fact, the initiative sees the collaboration between the great Franciacorta cellar and the Penal Institute of Alessandria. The inmates of the Piedmont prison were in fact entrusted with the task of transforming the staves of barrels and barriques into bird boxes in accordance with the principle of recovery and sustainability.
“For a reality like ours, certified sustainable with the Equalitas standard since 2017, attention to certain issues is an absolute priority - declares Riccardo Ricci Curbastro - It is no coincidence that everything we use in the cellar follows a logic of natural recovery. Such as cork stoppers, used for the production of sound-absorbing and insulating panels, or using on some still wines polymer corks produced from sugar cane, with a neutral production impact and entirely recyclable. However, the wood of barrels and barriques, which comes from French state-owned forests managed in a sustainable way, is not always easily recyclable - the classic uses such as tables or planters discount the limit of often limited spaces in homes as well as in public places - and this risks interrupting the virtuous cycle. For us at Ricci Curbastro it was a question of offering these oak staves a third life after growing in the forest which guarantees, thanks to solar energy, the "storage" in the wood of carbon dioxide so dangerous for global warming and after the 'use for several years as an ideal container for the maturation of our wines”.
It is at this point that the third pillar, that of ethical sustainability, was added to the concept of environmental and economic sustainability. The abandoned staves, skilfully worked in the carpentry department of the Penal Institute of Alessandria, are transformed into artificial nests, thus closing a cycle, that of wood, in the most natural of ways.
“The Cooperative Idee in Fuga, which operates in the Penal Institutes of Alessandria – explains Andrea Ferrari (President of ISES) – enthusiastically welcomed this wonderful proposal. We work to involve prisoners in activities that offer them a second chance, starting right from work, because only work guarantees dignity and the possibility of real redemption. In this sense, the project of the artificial nests perfectly matches our mission: to recover people and materials starting from something new, beautiful, useful and respectful of the environment”.
The Ricci Curbastro farm, led by the eighteenth generation of the homonymous family with Gualberto and Filippo, together with their father Riccardo, guarantees not only the historical memory of the ancient production traditions - the Ricci Curbastro Agricultural and Wine Museum is enclosed in a single reality Curbastro, the Ricci Curbastro Archive and the Ricci Curbastro Library – but also offers continuous innovation in every sector of its winemaking activity.
In the environmental field, after the abandonment of all herbicides in 1980, the path led the company to complete self-sufficiency for electricity in 2005, to organic farming in 2015 and finally to being one of the first 9 certified sustainable Italian companies with the Equalitas standard in 2017. Sustainability, touching both the environmental and social pillars, is at the heart of this new project.
"The Three Lives of the Tree" are the first chapter of the "The Nest of Sustainability" project, a container of various initiatives that the Ricci Curbastro Company will develop over the next few years.
