The story of the “cocciopesto” starts from far away. Already the Phoenicians (22nd century BC) used an amalgam traceable to this material. In the Roman construction technique it is a mixture of lime, sand or pozzolana with fragments of brick (from which it takes its name) which can have different grain sizes, but in any case homogeneous. It was used as a wall covering with waterproofing function in damp places, in cisterns, in heating systems, in the large Roman aqueducts and in all situations where there was a criticality due to waterproofing problems. Pliny in book 35 of his Naturalis Historia, quotes as follows: the vases of the city of Segni were the best and most accredited of the others. (“Fractis etiam testis utendo sic, ut firmius durent, fusis calce addita, que vacant signina”). Vitruvius, architect and the most famous architectural theorist of all time, in his treatise “De Architectura” (On architecture), in 10 books, probably written between 29 and 23 BC, gives us the rules for composing the ‘Opus Signinum. Writing: “you must first prepare the purest arena, break the flints into pebbles no bigger than the weight of a pound, add the lime of the strongest and all in the following proportions: five parts of the arena, two of lime, cement is added to it, everything is mixed in a large mortar and with this mixture walls are made or the ground is smeared and everything is crushed with iron pestles ”. The remains found to this day are there to testify the greatness and genius of our remote fellow citizens.
Prof. Giorgio Santi, professor of natural history at the University of Pisa, in a text on the Sienese provinces, published in 1798, mentions the “concrete” obtained from the selected lime and the shards of amphorae, terracotta vases.
Cocciopesto was used from Pompeii to the Middle Ages up to our times always used as a natural waterproofing.

Our research on historical and natural materials for a possible use in the realization of containers for winemaking, has led us, thanks to the suggestions of renowned university teachers and oenologists, to rediscover this amalgam. Analysis carried out on the material in question gave excellent results with regards to the transfers of heavy metals. In our mixture, lime (which gives off heavy metals that do not benefit the hygienic needs and the organoleptic properties in the maturation of the wine) is replaced by a low percentage of cementitious binder, together with the other aggregates such as shopped terracotta, sand, gravel washed in double grain size and polypropylene structural binding fibers that make up our amalgam.
Following a comparative analysis with other companies which work in the sector that use other inert materials such as clay, clinker or ceramic for containers in the wine field, our vases are certainly the most eco-sustainable, very suitable in particular for organic cellars, as they use completely natural materials in the dough and they do not require baking in the oven and therefore do not give carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere.
One of the best features that make it an excellent product is the micro oxygenation which during winemaking helps the lees not to produce unpleasant odors that could be transmitted to the wine. This process gives the wine clearness and cleanliness which during refinement as well as not absorbing wine (such as wood and some non-vitrified cements), does not create oxidative evolutions in the short and medium term.

Considering that for our barrels we have used a historical “mix” such as cocciopesto, also for the product design we were inspired by classic shapes in the history of architecture such as the octagon one. Already in the early Christian period, to get from the Middle Ages to the sixteenth century and up to the present day, vestiges of buildings with an architectural composition matrix that takes into account an octagonal plan, the history of our country is full. S. Vitale in Ravenna, Castel del Monte in Puglia, the baptisteries of Pisa and Florence, just to mention the most important ones, have as their matrix an architectural im-print with an octagonal base, taken by us to design our containers.