Our story
The early XX Century
Our story began in the 1920s, when Ferruccio Fidora acquired the Civranetta estate in Venice mainland.
Civranetta was a portion of a bigger estate that previously belonged to the noble Venetian family of the Civrans and to the Benedictine monks, earlier in the Middle Age.
The Fidora family founded the estate here and started a story of agriculture, providing jobs for many families in the area.
Guido Fidora, the organic forerunner
Ferruccio’s son, Guido, used to work as a psychologist and joined the family in the work at the estate with a scientific and critical approach. He learned through the teachings of the older workers and studied many books about agriculture.
In those years, chemicals were promoted as the most innovative and effective way to grow crops, but soon his experience at the farm revealed some side effects.
After a few attempts, in 1974 Guido Fidora decided to stop using pesticides, opening its way to organic agriculture.
At that time being organic was not a fashion and the word “organic” itself was not even linked to agriculture as it is today. There were no books, no researches, no teachers and no certifications. Guido started by cutting off the chemicals one by one and ended up leaving spontaneous plants grow along the water courses to feed the bees and other useful insects. His method was probably closer to the biodynamic approach, than to what we know today as organic.
Guido learned through experience and collaborated with other Italian producers who shared the same approach. Together, they helped write the first drafts of organic regulations.
Wine as a focus
Guido’s son, Lorenzo Fidora has always been sharing his father’s ideas and approach to agriculture. He took on the company and Civranetta estate gets the official EU organic certification.
During the years wine got more important and some new vineyards were added to the family domains. The first one was Collagù, on the beautiful Valdobbiadene hills, where the Fidoras produce Prosecco Superiore, followed by Montorio in Eastern Valpolicella and Fraune in Valpolicella Classica, to start a new challenge with the famous red wines of Verona.
Emilio Fidora, route to biodynamic agriculture
After a career in big corporations in Italy and abroad, Guido’s grandson, Emilio, joins the company. He works at the estates and travels around the world to open new markets, making friends with many foreign organic and biodynamic producers, who share his same philosophy. Meanwhile, he gets more and more curious about Steiner’s biodynamic principles. He travels several times to Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland, the heart of biodynamic agriculture, and starts his path to convert Fidora’s production to biodynamic.
Cattle, horses, chicken and pigs are bred in Civranetta estate, as well as new crops to make the farm work as a circular and sustainable system, where everything is reused and animals can live in harmony with the environment.
Today, Fidora estates are one of the oldest examples of an organic and biodynamic environment in Italy and the oldest organic farm in Veneto. Grapevine and domestic animals grow together with spontaneous plants, trees and wild animals. It’s the living result of how a different agricultural method can be a better answer to the world.
