What's behind Azienda Agricola Moin

FOUR GENERATIONS OF FARMERS AND BREEDERS

More than four generations of the Moin family have been farming since their forefather Apollinaire Moin was born in 1893.

After surviving concentration camp imprisonment, the eldest son, Moin Souvenir, married Francesca Ottin and, with the family’s support, renovated and expanded the farm owned by his father while continuing to run the business.

He later purchased land in the village of Ville sur Nus on which, in the early 80s, his son Cesarino built a more up-to-date cattle shed outside the village where it was easier to manage a growing livestock herd. Several years later he further enlarged the farm by constructing a stone cellar adjacent to the farm buildings that served for ripening wheels of Fontina and other varieties of cheese.

In1993 he purchased Alpe Brevaz in Quart from the noble Rosset family. Although renovation work only began on the buildings in 2002, a fixed sprinkler system was quickly installed to boost the alpine meadows grass yield. 

Despite studying to become a surveyor at "J. Brocherel” Technical Institute in Aosta, Denis Moin - the son of Cesarino and Rosilde Brunod from Brissogne - opted to work alongside his father on the family farm.  

In 2004 the need arose to design and construct a more modern, mechanised building in order to cut down on labour costs and breed beef cattle (in addition to dairy cows). Thus, work began constructing a new cattle shed and dairy at Tzerpiana, a stone’s throw from the existing one. 

Besides renovating and enlarging their premises in Quart, the Moin family invested in valorising, maintaining and extending their property in Brissogne, inherited from the Brunod side of the family.

Denis’s maternal great-grandparents and grandparents had, in fact, also been farmers: his great-grandfather Casimiro Marcoz from Établoz had farmed  Gramonanche - Les Laures alpine pastures for over 20 years, raising five children, one of whom was Barbara Marcoz. The latter married Brunod Venanzio and settled in the village of Grand Brissogne. Through hard work and great sacrifices they managed to acquire extensive areas of land, including meadows lying above the village of Grand Brissogne owned by the well-known Blanchet family of Aosta.

Here, their big dream came true in1959: they built "La Plantze” alpine farmstead.  Given that no roads connected the farm to Grand Brissogne, they used materials found on-site and without the aid of mechanical machinery.Over the following years, "La Plantze” was extended and the land improved: the herd increased to 90 head of dairy cattle and the property included a total of 10 hectares of land  that were crucial for supplying the farm with fodder.  

After the birth of Denis and Melania Darensod’s daughter and son Sélène and Xavier, they decided to make a qualitative leap, progressing to the "start-to-end supply chain”, processing the farm-produced  milk directly on-site. Besides Fontina and Valdostan meat, they began producing bottled full-fat milk, yoghurt, desserts, fresh cheese and various types of ripened cheeses. 

Customers can purchase all these products from the farm shop, which opened in 2014.