Prepotto, Colli Orientali del Friuli
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Our story

In search of lost time and beauty

Augusta Bargilli in the vineyard, with the magnum painted with the Madonna

Tornare alla terra è stato il mio ritorno dentro di me.

Returning to the land was my return into myself.

Augusta
The painted Bargilli crest: a helmet with crown and star, three stars on blue, a red band and a wheel
The family crest
A black-and-white photograph of Maria Teresa, Augusta’s mother, as a young woman, sitting on a low wall in a floral dress
My mother, Maria Teresa

Tuscany, 19th century

The land where I was born

I was born in Collemezzano, near Cecina, in Tuscany. Mine is an old Tuscan noble family, whose name was originally Bargigli. In the middle of the 19th century my great-grandfather bought an estate in the Maremma: vines, olive trees, wine and livestock.

That farm was lost. My wine begins there: in the wish to find my family’s land again. There is a wheel in the crest, the same wheel that today circles my initials.

Il vino è diventato la chiave della mia riconciliazione.

Wine became the key to my reconciliation.

An instant photo of Augusta Bargilli among crates of red grapes, olive trees behind her
The harvest
A black-and-white photograph of Augusta’s mother, Maria Teresa, as a young woman, smiling in a hanging wicker chair
Maria Teresa

Collemezzano

Back to the land

I studied art. Before wine there was theatre, cinema, painting; in 1997 I was a finalist at Miss Italia.

At twenty-five I was expecting a little girl, and I chose to raise her on my own: my daughter, Aloisa. Then my mother, Maria Teresa, fell seriously ill. I went back to Collemezzano, to its abandoned vineyards, and in 2016 I began making wine again.

Avevo scelto di affrontare la maternità come un atto di libertà e di fede.

I had chosen to face motherhood as an act of freedom and of faith.

Augusta Bargilli kneeling in the vineyard in her straw hat, a glass of red in her hand, beside her dog
In the vineyard
Two hands hold fragments of marl and sandstone above the vineyard’s rock
Ponca

Prepotto, Colli Orientali del Friuli

Friuli

In 2018 I met Pierpaolo Sirch, who became my partner in life and in work. I moved to his land, the ancient Forum Iulii, today Friuli: the Colli Orientali, at Prepotto, on the border with Slovenia. In 2019 the estate was founded: a personal project, which I share with Pierpaolo and with my daughter, Aloisa.

Pierpaolo is an agronomist from a family of Friulian winegrowers, and head of production at Feudi di San Gregorio, in Irpinia. Since 1998, with Marco Simonit, his childhood friend, he has been bringing the pruner’s craft back to the vineyards: together they founded Simonit&Sirch, Preparatori d’Uva, which today works with wineries on every continent. Their method lets the vine branch out as it ages, respects the flow of the sap and cuts little, on young wood.

Four hectares on the hills, on ponca, the flysch of marl and sandstone. I prefer old vines: some are eighty years old. They are pruned in winter, after Pierpaolo and Marco’s method.

La vigna è una scuola di umiltà, di gesti sacri e ripetuti, di fiducia nel tempo.

The vineyard is a school of humility, of sacred and repeated gestures, of trust in time.

  • A bunch of white grapes on the vine, lit from behind by the low sun
    On the vine
  • The twisted trunk of an old vine in the evening light, under its leaves
    The old vines
  • Augusta Bargilli crouching on a woodland path with a bottle, next to her dog
    In the woods
A hand red with must, held up over a vat in the cellar
Hands in the must
Augusta Bargilli and her daughter Aloisa at their stand at Vinitaly: Aloisa, in a black blazer, holds a bottle; Augusta, in her straw hat, leans on the counter
With Aloisa at Vinitaly

In the cellar

The wine

The grapes are picked by hand, into crates. In the cellar I try to work “by subtraction”, like an artist on a block of marble: I tread the grapes by foot, punch down the cap by hand, and use the traditional press when I can. The whites ferment in amphora and barrique.

Every wine carries something of my family. Balo bears the name of my daughter, Aloisa; the Friulano “A mamma” is dedicated to my mother.

Faccio tutto da sola … chi beve il mio vino beve me.

I do everything myself … whoever drinks my wine drinks me.

  • Red crates full of freshly picked black grapes, in the vineyard
    Into crates
  • The old wooden press, its staves full of pressed grape skins
    The press
  • A clay amphora in the cellar, its mouth covered with a red cloth, in a single light
    In amphora
A bottle painted by hand with a figure in a green skirt and the words “Cinque secondi di Paolo Virzì”, in the dark
A bottle painted for the film

Cinema, 2025

Cinque secondi

In 2025 Cinque secondi, Paolo Virzì’s film, came out. Matilde, the young woman who brings an abandoned vineyard back to life, is inspired by me, and my daughter Aloisa plays Valentina.

Anche la mia vita è stata un’anatomia di cinque secondi.

My life, too, has been an anatomy of five seconds.

The film

In the guides

Gambero RossoVini d'Italiaedition by edition

2027
2026
2025
2024

WineHunterThe WH Awardedition by edition

2026
  • Schioppettino 2023WH Award Gold
  • Refosco 2022WH Award Rosso
2025
2024

Wine Blog RollFrancesco Saverio Russoedition by edition

2025
  • The estate Among the best wineries
2024
  • The estate Among the best wineries
2023
2022

In the press

Augusta Bargilli at her stand at a wine fair, in her straw hat with a glass of white, under the sign with her name
At the fair

On the wines

Kompakte Nase mit Noten nach frischem Feigenblatt, Sesam und reifer Birne. Cremig und rund am Gaumen …

A concentrated nose with notes of fresh fig leaves, sesame, and ripe pear. Creamy and round on the palate …

Falstaff“A mamma” 2023

Al sorso è verticale con personalità. Tannini fini.

Vertical on the palate, with personality. Fine tannins.

Culture & TerroirRefosco 2019

Il sorso è armonico, di grande persistenza …

Harmonious on the palate, with great length …

fancy MagazineCûr Blanc 2019

Written about us

  1. Provincia autonoma di TrentoVino da Oscar: la magia della vigna nel grande cinema
  2. Identità GoloseBollicine estive: le nuove scelte dei nostri esperti per i brindisi di agostoCinzia Benzi
  3. Vitae (AIS)Augusta Bargilli, come il ritorno alla vigna diventa il perno di un film e di una nuova vita da produttriceSerena Leo
  4. GiuColVino“Cinque secondi” di Paolo VirzìGiovanna Moldenhauer
  5. Wine MeridianCinque Secondi di Virzì: la vera storia dietro il filmStefano Montibeller
  6. il Nord EstMatilde, la ragazzina che non molla mai: «Ho ispirato io il personaggio di Virzì»Gian Paolo Polesini
  7. Il TirrenoCecina, la vigna e la rinascita: la storia di Augusta che ha ispirato Virzì in “Cinque secondi”Andrea Rocchi
  8. WineNews“La natura ci assomiglia: un vigneto selvatico, se curato, produce un vino che mette euforia”
  9. Culture & TerroirI Colli orientali del Friuli, secondo Augusta BargilliFabio Cristaldi
  10. fancy MagazineAugusta Bargilli CÛR BLANC Friuli Colli Orientali 2019
The wines