Cecchetto

"Tradition and research" is his motto.

Giorgio Cecchetto was born and raised in a family with long experience in vine growing in the Piave area, where the Raboso variety has been cultivated and grown for hundreds of years.

The family winery, Cecchetto, is located in Tezze di Piave, in the heart of the Piave DOC area in the Treviso region of the Veneto. His family had a long tradition of growing the Raboso grape in this region. This terrain is quite flat, lying along the Piave river valley. It has flooded numerous times throughout history, and the alluvial soil is very fertile. It can also be quite damp and foggy, making it a challenging environment for many winemakers. The Raboso grape in particular is highly resistant to fungal disease and rot, and so is well-suited for this climate.
During the Roman Empire Pliny the Elder had documented in his Naturalis Historia, the cultivation of the grape "Picina omnium nigerrima", a black grape which is the ancestor of Raboso.

Today Giorgio is highly committed to making the most from his beloved Raboso, and during a recent visit to their winery, we observed firsthand some of his experiments. Behind the winery there are fields of Raboso grapes in which the rows of grape vines are interspersed with mulberry trees, replicating how they were planted traditionally. Inside the cellar, Raboso wines are aging in local woods such as chestnut, pear tree and cherry tree, rather than in the French and American oak that are usually fancied by winemakers worldwide.

According to Mr Cecchetto, “To carry forward our traditions is an essential step for the survival of our heritage and our land, we must pay our tribute to the 500-year-old history of the people, our people, who have kept and preserved the tradition of Raboso, always looking at the future with hope and confidence”.
In 1986, he decided it was time to expand his horizons; he wanted the Raboso to be known and appreciated outside the boundaries of its area of origin. He made it his mission.

Today, he owns three production facilities in the Treviso province and his innovative yet traditional approach is paying off: Cecchetto Giorgio Winery has become a landmark in winemaking and is very much respected and admired by all the local wine producers and consumers.

Giorgio Cecchetto has been featured in several food & wine related shows on the main national and international TV channels.