A few metres from my grandparents’ house in Vernazza, a vineyard climbs the hillside with a vertical view down to the sea. This is CheO, and I think it is one of the most moving stories in the whole of the Cinque Terre. I spent an afternoon up there years ago with its owner, and I have wanted everyone to know about it ever since.
The owner is Bartolomeo Lercari, known to everyone in the village as Bartalo, a vernazzese who, with his wife Lise and their dog Diva, in my opinion deserves a monument. Let me explain why.)
A hillside reclaimed by hand
In 1997 the Cinque Terre was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and over the following two years both the Marine Protected Area and the National Park were established. Around that time Bartalo and Lise decided to pour their resources, their time and all their energy into recovering a hillside above Vernazza that had been left for years to brambles and undergrowth.
It was not easy. First they had to negotiate with dozens of separate landowners to rent or buy the fields and piece back together a territory that had become completely fragmented. Then came the physical work: a helicopter for the materials, experienced hands, and an immense determination, climbing from terrace to terrace, rediscovering stone walls and reclaiming a hectare and a half of hillside.
A vineyard takes time. From planting, a vine needs at least six years before it can be harvested for the first time. So it was 2003 before these two agronomist academics could formally found CheO, and 2010 before they had the satisfaction of producing around 8,000 bottles: a white DOC, the sweet Sciacchetrà, and a red IGT.
The flood, and starting again
Then, on 25 October 2011, the Cinque Terre flood that buried Vernazza wiped out much of that work in a few hours. Whole fields, dry stone walls, the monorail that carried grapes and materials, the warehouse, all lost.
I have my own memory of that day, because I reached Vernazza on 26 October looking for my family, to find them and get them out. It is not a day I write about lightly, and it is part of why what Bartalo and Lise did next means so much to me.
They did not give up. They rolled up their sleeves and started over, again. The vineyard came back, and the recognition followed: in 2014 they won TerroirVino’s “A Life for Wine” award, and Bartalo went on to become president of the Cinque Terre Sciacchetrà Consortium, working to promote the Cinque Terre’s rare and beloved sweet wine. To say I admire them is putting it far too simply.
Why the wine is like this in the first place
Standing up there, you understand something about Cinque Terre wine that no label can tell you. This coastline was planted with vines long ago, by some accounts first by Greek sailors, and to farm cliffs this steep, generations built a dense lattice of narrow terraces, the ciàn, held up by dry stone walls laid entirely by hand.
The scale is almost impossible to picture until you hear the numbers: an estimated 6,729 kilometres of dry stone wall across the Cinque Terre, more than the radius of the Earth, all built and rebuilt by hand over centuries. Every glass of wine from these hills is, quite literally, the product of that labour. It is the clearest example I know of what I mean when I write about tourism and the fragile fabric of a place: the landscape tourists photograph is somebody’s back-breaking work, and it does not survive on its own.
If you visit, you will most likely meet Bartalo himself, who happens to be a genuine world expert on the relationship between light and the vine, though he would never dream of putting it so grandly, and who will share it with more enthusiasm than most people bring to anything. My own favourite of his wines is the Perciò, and the name alone is worth lingering over while he tells you its story.
Visiting CheO: tastings, hours and prices for 2026
This is the part of my original post that most needed updating, since I first wrote it years ago. Here are the current details.
CheO is up at Torre Bertram, above the village, and it is open from 24 March to 15 October, 4pm to 7pm, closed on Wednesdays.
For a free walk-in tasting you do not need to book: just come up between 4pm and 7pm. You pay for what you taste, from around €6 for a single glass up to about €35 for a full tasting selection.
If you would like something more in-depth, there are three bookable private experiences:
- Vineyard tour with tasting: about 1.5 hours, a private tasting of three wines, €50 per person, minimum 4 people.
- DOC Cinque Terre and IGT tasting: about 1 hour, a cellar visit plus a private tasting of three wines, €25 per person.
- Sciacchetrà vertical tasting: about 1 hour, a cellar visit plus a private tasting of three different vintages of Sciacchetrà, €35 per person, minimum 4 people.
For the private experiences, book ahead by phone or WhatsApp on +39 333 9594758, or by email at bartolocheo@gmail.com. For the current details you can always check the winery’s own site.
Make it easy on yourself: stay in the village
A glass of Sciacchetrà at sunset, high above the Vernazza harbour, is one of the loveliest evenings the Cinque Terre can give you. The one practical thing to know is that it is a real climb up from the village, and you will not want to be watching the clock for the last train back to wherever you are sleeping.
So if you can, stay in Vernazza itself. My family’s Oasi vacation flat in Vernazza is about 200 metres from the station, close enough that you can walk up to CheO, taste properly, and stroll back down afterwards with nothing to catch. That is exactly how this evening is meant to be done.
One last thing. “Bartalo” is not on his birth certificate: there he is Bartolomeo Lercari. As a boy he found the full name too heavy, and the local nickname “Tumelin” already belonged to a whole family, so for decades now everyone has known him as Bartalo, partly to plant his flag firmly on the Bartali side of the old Coppi-versus-Bartali cycling rivalry.
Further reading
- Tourism and the social fabric of a place, on why these terraces matter
- Vernazza, my home in the Cinque Terre
- The 2011 Cinque Terre flood, which this story runs straight through
FAQ
Can you visit a winery in the Cinque Terre? Yes. CheO, above Vernazza, welcomes visitors for wine tastings and cellar visits. From 24 March to 15 October it is open 4pm to 7pm, closed Wednesdays, with a free walk-in tasting where you pay per glass, and bookable private experiences including a vineyard tour and a Sciacchetrà vertical tasting.
Do you need to book a tasting at CheO in Vernazza? Not for the free walk-in tasting between 4pm and 7pm during the open season. The private experiences, the vineyard tour, the DOC and IGT cellar tasting, and the Sciacchetrà vertical, must be booked in advance by phone, WhatsApp or email, and some have a minimum group size.
What is Sciacchetrà? Sciacchetrà is the rare, prized sweet wine of the Cinque Terre, made from partially dried local grapes on the steep coastal terraces. It is labour-intensive and produced in small quantities, which is why it is treasured. At CheO you can taste several vintages side by side in a dedicated vertical tasting.
How do you get to CheO winery above Vernazza? CheO is at Torre Bertram, on the hillside above Vernazza village. It is reached on foot, a real but rewarding climb up from the centre, so it is easiest if you are staying in Vernazza itself. Wear proper shoes and allow time for the walk both ways.
Why is Cinque Terre wine special? Because of where and how it is grown. The vineyards cling to steep coastal cliffs on narrow hand-built terraces supported by an estimated 6,729 km of dry stone walls across the Cinque Terre. Every bottle reflects generations of extraordinarily demanding manual labour, which is part of what makes wineries like CheO so remarkable to visit.
