CheO: a winery worth the climb, in Vernazza
Last updated: July 2026
Above Vernazza, past the last houses of the village, a vineyard climbs the hillside with a view straight down to the harbour. This is CheO, and its story is one of the most moving in the whole of Cinque Terre.
A land shaped by wine
Long before CheO, or any single winery, this coastline was already defined by wine. The first vines here are believed to have been planted by Greek sailors, and grape growing has been the backbone of local life ever since. To make cultivation possible on cliffs this steep, generations of Cinque Terre families built a dense network of terraces, known locally as ciàn, held up by hand-built dry stone walls.
The scale of it is hard to grasp until you see the numbers: an estimated 4,200 cubic metres of dry stone walls per hectare, roughly 8,400,000 cubic metres across the whole of Cinque Terre; 3,163 linear metres of wall per hectare, adding up to around 6,729 km in total, more than the Earth's radius.
These two short documentaries capture that history, and the way of life behind it, better than we could in words:
A vineyard rebuilt twice
In the late 1990s, not long after Cinque Terre was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Bartolomeo "Bartalo" Lercari and his wife Lise decided to reclaim a hillside above Vernazza that had been abandoned to brambles for years. They spent years negotiating with dozens of landowners to recompose the fragmented terraces, then years more rebuilding dry stone walls by hand, sometimes with the help of a helicopter to reach the steepest terraces. A vine needs about six years before its first proper harvest, so it was 2003 before they could formally found CheO, and 2010 before production reached a meaningful scale, around 8,000 bottles of white DOC, Sciacchetrà and a red IGT.
Then, on 25 October 2011, the flood that devastated Vernazza wiped out much of that work in a few hours: fields, dry stone walls, the monorail used to move grapes and equipment, the warehouse. Bartalo and Lise rebuilt again. The vineyard has been recognised since, including the "A Life for Wine" award from TerroirVino, and Bartalo now also serves as president of the Cinque Terre Sciacchetrà Consortium.
If you visit, you'll likely meet Bartalo himself, who happens to be a genuine expert in the relationship between light and vines, and will talk to you about it with more enthusiasm than most people bring to anything.
For the full story, in more personal detail, our founder Silvia, who grew up a few houses down from Bartalo's own family home in Vernazza, wrote about her afternoon at CheO on Silvia's Trips.
Visiting CheO: tastings and prices for 2026
CheO is open at Torre Bertram from 24 March to 15 October, 4pm to 7pm, closed on Wednesdays.
Free walk-in tasting, no booking needed, between 4pm and 7pm. Prices vary by what you taste, from €6 for a single glass up to €35 for a full tasting combination.
Bookable private experiences:
- Vineyard tour with tasting: 1.5 hours, a private tasting of three wines, €50 per person, minimum 4 people
- DOC Cinque Terre and IGT tasting: 1 hour, cellar visit plus a private tasting of 3 wines, €25 per person
- Sciacchetrà vertical tasting: 1 hour, cellar visit plus a private tasting of three different vintages of Sciacchetrà, €35 per person, minimum 4 people
For private experiences, book ahead by phone or WhatsApp on +39 333 9594758, or by email at bartolocheo@gmail.com.
Stay close enough to walk there
If a glass of Sciacchetrà at sunset above Vernazza sounds like your kind of evening, staying inside the village makes it effortless. Our Oasi Vacation Rental in Vernazza is a 45m² independent flat with its own balcony, about 200 metres from the train station, close enough that you can walk up to CheO, taste a few wines, and walk back without worrying about the last train
FAQ
Do I need to book a tasting at CheO?
Not for the free walk-in tasting between 4pm and 7pm. The private experiences (vineyard tour, DOC and IGT tasting, Sciacchetrà vertical) need to be booked in advance by phone, WhatsApp or email.
When is CheO open?
From 24 March to 15 October, 4pm to 7pm, closed on Wednesdays.
What's the difference between the free tasting and the private experiences?
The free tasting is walk-in, pay per glass or combination, no cellar visit. The private experiences include a cellar visit (and for the vineyard tour, the vineyard itself), a seated tasting, and require a minimum group size for some options.
How much dry stone wall is there in Cinque Terre?
An estimated 6,729 km in total, more than the Earth's radius, built by hand over centuries to support the terraced vineyards.
Where exactly is CheO?
Above Vernazza, at Torre Bertram. It's a walkable climb from the village centre, reachable on foot if you're staying nearby.
