Ciabot reloaded. Roddino 2023.

Text Fabian Wittmann*

Photos Ulla Schneeweis*

Ciabot, that’s what they say here in Piedmont about small houses in the middle of the vineyards. Just big enough to house tools and equipment and to provide shelter in bad weather. Unfortunately, many of them no longer exist – most of them have not survived the industrialisation of viticulture here in the region.

There is still one between Yvonne and Jörg’s vines and it is responsible for the fact that no bulldozer has yet made it onto their hilly vineyard. Usually, Yvonne tells us as we approach the cottage, the hills are levelled to make it easier to cultivate the vines with heavy equipment. To do this, their ciabot would have had to be demolished – but that was never an option for the two of them.

Rather, Jörg’s passion lies in reading the old stone walls and only intervening where the ravages of time could cause substantial problems. The roof has already been re-roofed in winter and a few wooden beams have had to be replaced. They will soon be used to build shelves for the interior. Nothing is thrown away here.

Two large metal braces now hold the house together, its bricks cemented only by compressed sand. All of this has never seen a bag of cement, says Jörg, and when asked how he calculates the statics to support the walls and the roof, he says succinctly: “We’ve been doing it all by feel – for 30 years now”.   Laughing, he tells us that the wooden door was installed upside down. He removed it and welded it into a steel frame. Luca, who has been on every construction site for years, takes up the hammer again. The two are in the process of reassembling the heavy door – this time the right way round.

In the fountain right next to the house, Yvonne shows us an inscription with the year it was built. 1958 stands for the year when water was first raised here. The house is estimated to be much older. After Yvonne and Jörg’s rejuvenation, the Ciabot will be here for many more decades. And the wine on the hills around it will probably continue to be farmed by hand.

The vineyard is located east of the Bocciarda in Roddino.

*Schneeweis Wittmann ≈
Grafik Design Werkstatt
im Werkstättenhof
Mollardgasse 85a/2/106, 1060 Wien
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