PGI Piedmont hazelnuts and Semi-finished products for ice cream shops, pastry shops, restaurants and food industries.

Il Nocciolaio - Nocciole Piemonte IGP

PGI Piedmont hazelnuts from the Langhe

testata nocciole

The Farm

With our project, we want to bring the product of excellence from the place where we grew up to Italy and the world: the hazelnut.

We are proud of the healthy farming heritage that has come from our family:
most of the hazel groves on our farm come from hazelnut seedlings taken from ancient strains of the Tonda Gentile Trilobata variety that our grandfather planted by hand.

From 26 February 2020, our entire hazelnut production has been certified as "PGI Piedmont hazelnuts from the Langhe", a recognition reserved exclusively for those who own 100% of their hazel groves within the hilly area of the Langhe.

Since the early 2000s we have increased the number of our hazel groves by planting and investing in land but the crucial element that has distinguished our generation has been the introduction of product transformation in the company.

Our products are:

Whole hazelnuts in shell, raw and roasted shelled hazelnuts, chopped hazelnuts and hazelnut flour, hazelnut paste and hazelnut and cocoa cream.

Family management allows us to personally control the entire supply chain, from responsible and sustainable care of the land to the zero kilometre packaged product.

Il Nocciolaio Farm is located in the municipality of Mango (CN) surrounded by hazel groves in the heart of the Langhe, at an altitude of 600 metres above sea level.

Our headquarters is 15 km from Alba, the "capital city of the Langhe" famous worldwide for its wines including Barolo and Barbaresco and for the most precious product of the Italian gastronomic heritage: the white truffle.

Environment

We at Il Nocciolaio farm care about the environment even when we are not in the hazelnut grove.

The heating of the shelling and processing sheds is carried out by means of a biomass boiler, a fuel produced on the farm from hazelnut pruning residues; in addition, a large part of the electricity consumed is produced by the photovoltaic system installed on the roof of the plant.

Soil Care

Our best tool for working the soil? The earthworm.

In our hazel groves we do not use herbicides and chemical fertilisers but we limit ourselves, like farmers in ancient times, to bring organic vegetable or animal substances as needed.

Such healthy and well-tended soil allows a large number of earthworms, our greatest allies in soil care, to thrive.

The natural fertility of our hazel groves is in fact due to the work of earthworms that produce calcium carbonate and humus, fundamental elements for the nutrition and growth of plants.

We could compare the soil to a digestive system in which digestion and metabolisation of organic matter takes place.

Healthy soil must be able to best assimilate its nutrients, and humus is the best nutrient.

Better soil, better hazelnuts.

Terracing

The steep formation of the Langhe offers breath-taking views but also precipitous and hostile terrain that is sometimes difficult to be cultivated with mechanical means.

For this reason a part of our hazel groves is terraced; these are fundamental works for the prevention of hydrogeological instability, useful to counter the erosive action of landslides and heavy rains.

The terraces of embankments that shape the steep slopes level the slope so that they can also be crossed by agricultural means; in this way even the steepest and long abandoned lands have been recovered and planted with hazel trees.