Surface area 11 ha.
Natural since late 1990s

About the winemaker
Donati Estate has its roots in the 1930s, and today, it’s Camillo third-generation Donati who tends the vines, crafts the wines, and lives on the property with his wife and children. This is a genuine family-run vineyard, with roughly 11 hectares under vine, farmed according to both organic and biodynamic principles. Camillo’s approach is that of a true artisan winemaker, carrying forward his family’s legacy while embracing low-intervention, sustainable viticulture.

About the vineyard
Located about 20 kilometers south of Parma, the estate is nestled in rolling hills at an elevation of around 250 meters above sea level. Camillo grows a broad palette of grape varieties: Malvasia di Candia Aromatica, Malvasia Rosa, Lambrusco Maestri, Sauvignon Blanc, Moscato Giallo, Trebbiano, Pinot Blanc, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Barbera. Almost all are vinified separately, allowing each grape and parcel to express its origins a hallmark of careful, small-scale winemaking.

About the wines
Everything here is fermented spontaneously on the skins, without temperature control, and the wines are bottled unfiltered and unfined. To capture the sparkle, Camillo bottles at the perfect moment during active fermentation, so that natural pressure develops in the bottle a process known as méthode ancestrale. In this corner of Emilia, using this ancestral method for Lambrusco and other sparkling wines is something of a rarity among European natural wine producers.

Camillo’s wines stand worlds apart from the mass-produced supermarket Lambruscos made by big regional names. His bottlings are pure, energetic, and often explosively aromatic, always inviting another glass. He adds nothing to the wine, and nothing is taken away a philosophy that shines through in the diversity and character of each wine in the range. Enjoy them all, and drink them young and well chilled!

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