Diego Rivetti Az. Agr.

Originally from Piobesi d’Alba, il viticoltore Diego Rivetti’s family roots lie in the sedimentary marine sand of MGA Bricco di Piobesi, perched overlooking the village, from where he draws his Roero Arneis ‘Criculin’ (crichet/cocuzzolo), planted in 2010; plus in 2023 he planted a plot of Roero Nebbiolo, also on il Bricco. In vintage 2022 Diego started making an anfora-fermented Vino Bianco Arneis from his other Piobesi plot across the valley, MGA Montiglione, planted in 2012/2014 on darker, iron-rich, peachy soils underlain with chalk (there’s a quarry nearby).

More recently, he’s teamed up up with his old friend e compagna di scuola Elena Strada of Serralunga d’Alba – a Milanese surgeon – to produce two Nebbiolos from the village. Elena & sister Irene’s nonno, Guido Massa, worked with Serralunga’s Cappellano family before creating his own cantina – G.Massa – with his wife Elda Viberti on the corner of piazza Cappellano, which they subsequently sold to Palladino in the 1970s.

Fortunately, they kept three pieces of prime vineyard land in which to plant Nebbiolo: a 0.2ha plot of vertiginous East-facing Broglio below the cantina, a NW facing parcel of clay-cool 0.8ha Damiano (to make Langhe Nebbiolo ‘Elda’), & a 0.5ha South/SW-facing fazzoletto on the spur of Vignarionda that had been planted up until 1981, then left fallow until Diego & Elena replanted it in 2018.

Skip forward to vintage 2024, as Diego releases all 2k bts of the inaugural vintage 2020 Barolo del comune di Serralunga d’Alba (from the Vignarionda spur), along with 2021 Langhe Nebbiolo ‘Elda’ (from Damiano fruit), 2023 Roero Arneis ‘Criculin’, Piobesi d’Alba, & 2022 Vino Biano Arneis Anfora.

The wines are classically made, using selected yeast, using static, vertical fermenting tanks; after MLF in stainless-steel, in vintage 2020 the affinamento of the Barolo was in third passage tonneaux (400L) for 30 mths, moving to 15HL Garbellotto botte grande from 2021, before being bottled without clarifying & only a light filtration.