Cornarea

The Bovone family herald from Ovada where they were wine merchants until Gian Piero Bovone bought the Cornarea estate back in 1974. Having studied oenology, Gian Piero had figured out that reductive, anaerobic winemaking was the key to vinifying Arneis. He then invested in the single vineyard of 15 hectares overlooking the small town of Canale, where he had the foresight to replant almost the entire hill to the white Arneis grape, culminating, in 1981, with their first single varietal wine.

The key to Cornarea’s high quality white wine Arneis DOCG (in north-west Piedmont in Italy) is the territorio/terroir: 30 million year old Miocene former sea bed soils rich in marine fossils and magnesium. In fact so rich is the soil in magnesium that a couple of doctors from nearby Canale made their fortune selling salt of magnesium, dug up locally, as a remedy during the late 19th century. The presence of magnesium, giving minerality to the wine, is apparently common to three villages: Canale, Montà, & Monteu Roero.

In recent years they have been fine-tuning their Nebbiolo wines too: both from the exact same hill, the Nebbiolo d’Alba is soft & fruity with pleasing freshness, while Roero DOCG possesses the finest of tannins & shows great elegance. In vintage 2011 they launched ‘Enritard’, a late-release Roero Arneis that spent more time on lees & 3/4 years in bottle.

> Converting to organic