Terroir Milano believes in re-connecting the value chain. The value chain that begins from seeds that become fruits, from the land that nurtures them, and from the people who take care of them.
The products you will see in our store are the best example of our philosophy. We select products that are carefully made by people who respects the original raw material and the land that had nurtured them.

Terroir Milano is a retail store supporting small and artisanal producers that are yet to be known to the mass market. We support the recent Ri-nascimento movement in the food sector — where people are moving more and more towards making natural and artisanal food choices. We aim to be the ambassador of these producers and the products they make.

Terroir Milano is our passion for natural food.

It all started in 2005 when Gabriele Ornati — owner of Terroir Milano encountered Angelo Najoleari, the founder of Centro Botanico. Founded in 1975, Centro Botanico was a research laboratory in Milan focusing on plants and natural products derived from them. As the forerunner in the biological retail sector, Angelo introduced Gabriele to biodynamic agriculture, permaculture and natural medicines.

Being inspired also by important figures in the field such as Rudolf Steiner and Masanobu Fukuoka, Gabriele’s growth has been a virtuous mix of theoretical knowledge and a learning-by-doing process. As a retail store manager of biological and natural products, he became deeply passionate about the small and artisanal producers and grew great relationships with them.

For Gabriele, they are his heroes—. They are the ones who have struggled for survival against the modern economic policies, yet are deeply and passionately rooted in their territory in any circumstances. After constantly learning about them by direct conversations and through their contributions in specialised media, Gabriele soon became eager to join forces with them.

His continuous effort to learn more about small and artisanal production has allowed him in becoming familiar with natural wine, from-bean-to-bar chocolate, speciality coffee, hand-selected speciality teas from all over the globe, olive cultivars of unique Italian terroirs and last but not least food specialties from all over Italy. For Gabriele, these products represent an alchemy of the soil, nature, climate, and the human factor — the Terrior.

Gabriele continues to travel around the world in the aim of fulfilling his education in the Food of Others. Slow Food — the global organization founded in 1989 to preserve local food cultures and traditions has also been a great source of inspiration for him and remains one of the trust worthy contact for great producers and food products.