Perched high above the Langhe in the village of Roddino, just across the border from Serralunga d’Alba, the Cassino family farm, Cascina Castella, owns 4.5ha of vineyards in the comune of Roddino & in Sinio. They grow Dolcetto, Barbera, Nebbiolo & Rossese Bianco. In the 1990s, papa Silvio Cassino started to commercialise their wines, but it wasn’t until his two daughters, Elena (nata ’91) & Monica (’94) graduated from Alba’s Liceo Linguistico ‘Leonardo da Vinci’ that things became more serious…
Upon graduation in 2014 Monica decided to expand her horizons & move to Germany, a step that led her to enrol at the prestigious Hochschule Geisenheim University in 2015 where she studied enologia & viticultura. Graduating in 2019 she returned to the family cantina & teamed up with her sister Elena. Vintage 2021 was their debutto year together, which coincidentally saw the release of their first Langhe Nebbiolo; in the same year they began work renovating the family’s splendid cascina.
The family has always prided itself in being guardians of the rare Rossese Bianco grape, a grape with Ligurian roots, that is found in the comunes of Sinio, Roddino, & Monforte d’Alba, of which they produce c.2k bts/anno. The Nebbiolo comes from a wonderful borgata in Sinio, called Bricco del Gallo, 500m asl high up & SW facing, on marne, limestone & arenarie soils, giving high toned wines not dissimilar to those of Serralunga d’Alba directly in front! And in the cuore of this borgata is found ‘La Castella’, a mini-hamlet of houses built & inhabited by Elena & Monica’s grandfather until he passed away in 2011. Plus they have some deliciously furry old vine Dolcetto!
Looking ahead, in 2023 they will be releasing their inaugural (2019) Barolo, a tiny quantity sourced from a supplier in the Monforte d’Alba MGA of Perno!
Class of 1970, Alessio Magi wasn’t actually born in the Valtellina but in Milano, moving to Lombardia with his parents at the age of ten; his madre being Swiss. Initially he worked for Coldiretti until 2000, then joined the Fondazione Fojanini where he helped small vignaioli get off the ground, both in the vigna & cantina, at a time when small artisan producers were just emerging in the valley. In 2004 he headed off to New Zealand, working for a large Marlborough producer for a couple of years, before moving back to the northern hemisphere, to the Bordeaux satellite of Castillon de la Bataille. Between 2008 & 2010 he worked closer to home, at a local Swiss producer of biodynamic wine. In 2010 he took the step of building a new cantina in Teglio, in the heart of the Valgella cru/zone, & began hunting round for some vines to ‘rent’, which he did without having to pay a penny – la sistema ‘accommodato‘! His first vintage of Valtellina Superiore was in 2011, all 2.6k bts.
He looks after c. 1.5ha of vines in the Valgella zone, located in two complementary plots: one facing South in the frazione of Ravoledo at c.400m as, & the other just round the corner/ridge facing East above in the fraz. of Spina at 550m asl. The vineyards are up to 90 years in age, although plants are replaced as they die, so some are as new as three years old. They are comprised of Chiavennasca (Nebbiolo), as well as some 10% of Pignola & Rossola, both of which are prized for their good acidity. Alessio likens the profile of the Valgella vineyard to that of Grumello, insofar that there’s quite good depth of soil on the steep terraces. Situated furthest from the warming influence of lago di Lecco/Como, the cru/zone of Valgella sits at the eastern, coolest end of the Valtellina; Valgella derives from the latin ‘vallicellum’ or small valley, probably due to the tapering of the valley.
In his cave under the family agriturismo, hewn out of the rock, Alessio makes classic Valtellina Superiore: following a mid to late October harvest, spontaneous fermentations & macerations – including whole bunch – of up to a month in stainless steel along with MLF idealmente, & then affinamento for c.24 mths in 10HL slavonian oak botte bought in 2011 & 2018; pressed wine is generally added back in, so as to fill the botti!
Vintage 2019 was bottled during the first week of November 2022: 13.65% abv, 5.46 g/L Total Acidity, 0.74 g/L Volatile Acidity, 0.6 RS, 3.49 pH, 26mg/L Total Sulphur.
The Boffa family – Stefano, Marilena, Cristian & Miriam – is hidden away in the La Morra borgata of Alessandria, Santa Maria. They tend 5ha close to the cantina, notably the Nebbiolo da Barolo vigne of Bricco Chiesa, Santa Maria, Galina & Capalot, on clay-rich marne sant-agata fossili soils at between 250-300m asl, averaging 35 years old, & facing mainly East. They also own a small plot in Serralunga d’Alba’s cru Meriame, plus they’ve started renting vines in Monforte’s Bricco San Pietro.
Marilena Alessandria, Cristian’s mother, is from Santa Maria, & owns the vineyards of Santa Maria, Capalot, & Serralunga’s Meriame. Indeed her father Giacomo once owned a cantina in Santa Maria itself, called Az. Agr. Martinat.
The Boffas came from Mango. In the 1940s, Stefano’s nonno Filippo uprooted & brought all eight of his children to Santa Maria, to live & work as a mezzadro at Tenuta Para, for Il Colonnello Comin, a Venetian who’d married a wealthy local landlady, Signora Vergiati. In 1954 Stefano’s father Pietro married local girl, Giuseppina Borgogno, who along with her two sorelle owned vines in Santa Maria. Upon marriage, the Borgogno ladies sold the family house & Giuseppina (& Pietro Boffa) inherited the vineyards of Bricco Chiesa, Galina & Bettolotti.
Stefano Boffa worked forty years for ‘Monsù’ Luigi Oddero (always wearing a tie, even when pruning his peach trees or playing cards), as well as selling him his fruit & wine up until vintage 2012. His son Cristian (nato ’86) served his apprenticeship under Luigi Oddero at Tenuta Para, working at the cantina soon after the Oddero split in 2006/07. Cristian attended the Umberto 1 Enological School in Alba, while his sorella Miriam is a qualified cuoca, & helps the family in the vineyards too.
Vinification of the Barolos is traditional, fermented in stainless steel, followed by affinamento in slavonian oak botte grande (Garbellotto & Gamba 25, 30, & 38HL). The Barolo del comune di La Morra is a blend of fruit from all four of their Santa Maria vineyards. Their first labeled Barolo was made in 2014, all 500 bottles. They also make a Dolcetto, Barbera, & Langhe Nebbiolo.
From the classica zone of Valpolicella, high up in the comune of Marano di Valpolicella at circa 350m asl on ancient Eocenic sedimentary limestone, sandstone & red volcanic basalt soils, is found the tiny 3ha CàMatta estate belonging to Alessandro Lonardi.
Schooled as an agronomist, with a passion for Recioto, Alessandro is the first generation to bottle his family’s fruit, having working alongside his nonni since 2007; these days he’s helped by his compagna Susan & son James. He released his first label in vintage 2012, converting the vineyards to organic in 2016 (certified in 2019). He works only with pergola veronese (offering protection from the sun, hail, & deer!), & is fortunate to own vineyards dating back to 1964, along with more recent plantings in 1987 & 2015. He tends eight vineyards in total, all in Marano, notably in the crus of Tenda (exposed & warmer) & Purano, cooler thanks to being higher up. One of his prized local varieties for making his Recioto is the Rebo grape, rich in colour & zucchero!
In 2015 he completed a smart new cantina, complete with vertical, static, stainless fermenters, botti grandi & tonneaux. He’s helped in the cantina by Enzo Bertolazzi, an enologo from Alto Adige. He uses the oak judiciously, while employing selected yeast for more control. Total sulphur is approx. 65mg/Litro. Production is currently only 10k bts/anno. He bottles with technical twin-disc & natural cork closures from Portokorc.
This traditional, family-owned estate – initially by the Jago, then Albasini & currently Spinosa family – dates back to 1860, & is set among gardens of the fine 19th century Villa. And since 2017, Enrico Cascella Spinosa has been joined by his nepote, Piergiovanni Ferrarese.
The property comprises c.25ha located on the western flank of the Negrar comune, & on the border with Marano di Valpolicella. La Valle di Negrar lies on the east part of the Classica zone, at c.400m asl, hence higher & farther from the warming influence of the Lago di Garda further west. Soils are a mixed of sedimentary ancient calcareous stones, sandstone, flint & volcanic red basalt.
Starting in the 1990s, the vineyards have been re-trellised from 1.8k/ha pergola to 4k/ha guyot. In 2018 they completed the new, underground cantina & bottaio, where they age the wines in 5yo french tonneaux & Garbellotto 20/25 HL botte.
The wines are traditionally made, using static, vertical, stainless-steel fermentors. Appassimento of the local Corvina Veronese, Corvinone & Rondinella grapes takes place on the premises.
Native ‘Negraresi’, the Mazzi family can trace their history back to the early 1900s, & is descended from the local Dall’Ora family; their fine casa & mulino/mill date from the early 1800s, & the 8ha of vineyards were inherited directly from the Dall’Oras.
Roberto Mazzi began bottling their wines in 1958, & now his sons Stefano (nato ’65) & Antonio (’68) continue his legacy, with Stefano joining in 1987 & Antonio in 1990; Stefano is responsible primarily for the vineyards, having graduated as an Agricultural Engineer, while Antonio studied modern languages (English & German). The cantina is found on the eastern edge of the town of Negrar, just below the cru of San Peretto. Indeed, prior to renaming the cantina after the family in 1979, the winery was known simply as ‘Sanperetto’.
Their vineyards are centred round the Negrar crus of San Peretto, Poiega, Villa, Castel, & Calcarole (for the Recioto); they also now have some vineyards in Marano for the Valpolicella Classico. They take the ‘lotta integrata/lutte raisonee’ approach to working their vines, grassing over, using a ‘freisa’ to clear the area under the rows, cutting the grass & not using any anti-muffa chemicals. No irrigation is used.
Their vinification approach is quite technical, with the emphasis on fruit expression thanks to guyot-trellising, pre-ferment cold soaks & relatively short 10-20 day, roto-fermentations (since 2015) at controlled, lower temperatures using selected yeast to retain the freshness of their grapes (& to help achieve dryness): Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella & also Molinara for acidity. The wines are aged mostly in barriques from Radoux, plus some 16HL botte grande made locally by Mastro Bottaio. Total sulphur levels at bottling are at circa 90mg/Litro.
Sadly Roberto Mazzi passed on in April 2020.
The Barale family is rooted in Barolo, just as Conterno is in Monforte d’Alba, Burlotto in Verduno, & Cappellano in Serralunga d’Alba. And since 2012, Diego (nato ’80) e Damiano (’83) – fratelli e enologi – are the latest ramo/branch of this historic Barale family to be making Barolo wine.
The family dates back to the 17th century, & in 1870 Francesco Barale started making wine. The estate passed to Carlo Barale, who in turn founded the ‘Barale-Rinaldi’ cantina. In due course the families split, with Carlo’s sons Giovanni Battista & Giuseppe (father of Carlo & Sergio) establishing Barale Fratelli until the death of Giuseppe in 1984. Diego & Damiano’s father Carlo, himself an enologo, & their uncle Sergio took over Barale Fratelli until the tragic ‘scomparso‘ of Carlo in Sept. 1985; at this point the property passed to his brother Sergio.
In 2012, following the renovation of their fine & historic ‘Aie Sottane‘ property in the heart of the village, the giovani fratelli Diego & Damiano began their own estate with the release of 2010 Langhe Nebbiolo & with 2012 Barolo. Their distinctive ‘falce e coccinella‘ label does not shed light on their political sympathies, but reveals a mantra shared by the fratelli from the outset: ‘Lavoro e Natura, Audace e Fortuna’.
With land inherited from their father Carlo, the fratelli now have 8ha of vineyards in the communes of Barolo (vigne Monrobiolo di Bussia, Castellero, Cannubi) & Monforte d’Alba (vigna San Giovanni); 4ha of which are devoted to growing Nebbiolo da Barolo.
Both brothers tend to their vines, occasionally with the falce (!), following essentially biologico/organic principles but they do not agree with some of the more illogical practices that being ‘bio’ certified would entail; they don’t own a caterpillar tractor, but rely on a traditional tractor; they prefer to wrap over (arrotolare) the tops of the vines rather than to ‘top’ them. The vineyards are harvested & vinified separately. Vinification is classical, with fermentation in static stainless-steel tanks for up to 25/30 days (remontaggio), followed by ageing in 500L french tonneaux for approx. 24mths. For now they feel most comfortable, & in control with this smaller wood format…but that said, a 25HL botte is in the pipeline.
From vintage 2018, their classic Barolo becomes a blend of Monrobiolo di Bussia & San Giovanni, while their inaugural Barolo Cannubi will be released in magnum only. And from vintage 2021, they will assume ownership of their family’s vines in Castellero. They also make a fine old vine Dolcetto d’Alba & younger vine Barbera d’Alba from their San Giovanni vineyard.
From Barbaresco’s comune di Neive comes this exciting 15ha property, owned & run by the Pola family. The name ‘Fontanabianca’ is derived from the pozzo/well that lies below the cantina, on the northern side of the village. It was nonno Franco who first started bottling their Barbarescos in 1970, followed by his son Aldo in 1982. Aldo married Luisella (Chiola) from nearby Serracapelli, & now it’s the turn of their (second) son Matteo (nato ’91), who’s been working alongside his father on an increasing basis since 2013. It was in vintage 2017 that Matteo gave up his post at the ABC Laboratory in Alba & switched full time to the family business. Matteo is largely in the cantina, while papa Aldo prefers the vigneti.
In 2017 the family rebuilt the now spacious cantina, that sits above their old vine Bordini vineyard at 280m asl facing ES on soft sandy calc clay soils, of which 1ha comprises 70+ yo ungrafted Nebbiolo vines that goes into the single vineyard Barbaresco Bordini. Since 2008 they have also rented 0.82ha of 35yo vines from Neive’s prized Serraboella cru at 310m asl, steeply facing SW on white marne & iron, Serravallian soils. They also make a classic Barbaresco blend from younger Bordini vines, below the cantina & from the versante opposite called ‘Montesommo’.
Vinification is classic, fermenting the Nebbiolo da Barbaresco fruit in either stainless-steel or tini di legno for circa 13 – 25 days, with remontaggio & delestaggio, followed by malolactic in cement tanks, & affinamento/elevage mostly botti grandi, but also a small part of used barriques (in the case of the classic Barbaresco).
Vintage 2017 was also the year they also installed three wooden 35HL tini, switched the entire range of Barbarescos to DIAM30 corks, & the rest of the range to DIAM5. The wines are traditionally bottled using total c.100mg/litro (c.35mg/litro free) of sulphur.
Since 2013 the family stopped using herbicides, & from 2016 they’ve signed up to the environmentally-friendly ‘Green Experience’ in looking after their vineyards.
Mattia Franzina’s tiny cantina is tucked away in the village of Buglio-in-Monte which, approaching from il lago di Como (the west), is one of the first settlements on the left as you come into the Valtellina. The family have been farming there for over fifty years, originally livestock & selling grapes, before selling the ‘bué’ & focusing on the fruit. Indeed their 0.8ha includes more than 100 year old plants, mostly Chiavennasca (Nebbiolo), but also Rossola, a paler, more productive, higher acid, & Pignola native varietal; plus some Merlina dotted around the terraces, which is an ancient varietal. Mattia’s a talented agronomist, graduating in 2009, & when not tending his own vines, consults for many for the small producers of the Valtellina.
The soil on these first slopes of the Valtellina is composed of schistous rock terraces & ‘giss’, a compact morainic soil. The terraces are at 350m asl, facing SSW, & the influence of the lake, 25km away, is felt by the gentle breeze that constantly fans the vines.
In 2014 his family took the step of building a new cantina in the village, & celebrated the vintage with 1500 bts of Rosso di Valtellina! Their first Valtellina Superiore, from the terraces above the village, came in 2015, again producing 1500 bts.
Vinification is traditional: the Rosso comes from declassified Valtellina Superiore fruit from three Buglio vineyards, fermented in stainless-steel, with 20% of the wine ageing briefly in tonneaux. The Valtellina Superiore invece is aged for 12 months in a single 10HL Veneta Botte bought in 2014. Total sulphur at bottling is circa 40mg/litro.
Lying adjacent to his vines, but way up above is perched Valtellina’s smallest vineyard: Maroggia, all 25ha of it. His dream is to rent the top plot on this knoll, & to produce the region’s first Valtellina Superiore Maroggia!
Organic, uncertified.
Go Mattia!
Torinese by birth, Lara Rocchetti & Luisa Sala – Lalù! – met in 2010 while studying at Pollentia’s Gastronomic Science University, & ended up submitting a joint thesis on how to build a carbon-neutral cantina! On graduation, Lara headed to Argentina, while Luisa went to the Cape wine lands. Neither’s family had any prior viticultural experience, but Luisa & Lara found themselves drawn to both the vine & to making wine.
On their return from abroad, a chance encounter with Trediberri’s Nicola Oberto (at a gathering at Cà d’Carussin) led to a stint working at the cantina’s La Morra vineyards. Indeed it was Nicola’s father Federico who, with typical generosity, opened the door to their first vineyard purchase in 2015, that of a 0.5ha parcel in Roncaglie, La Morra! After Trediberri, the girls worked at both Reva & Conterno-Fantino; they credit Claudia Conterno for his advice on vineyard bio management.
In 2017 & 2018, they worked in Burgundy: first at Domaine Lafon in Meursault (vinifying the 2017 Montrachet!), before heading to Morey St.Denis to assist Cecile Tremblay.
In 2019 they took the plunge, creating their own domain Az. Agr. Lalù & renting a small cantina in Serralunga d’Alba in which to vinify the 3.5ha of vines from the communes of Monforte d’Alba & La Morra: including 0.3ha Monforte Le Coste, 0.5ha La Morra’s Roncaglie, & 1.5ha Monforte’s Bussia Brovi (opposite Bussia Corsini). They have invested in their future, equipping the cantina with cement tanks, a 25HL wooden tino, peristatic pumps, a new destemmer, balloon press & a 15HL botte grande. It is in this Serralunga cantina that they will be vinifying their first harvest of Barbera d’Alba from Monforte’s Bussia, Langhe Nebbiolo from La Morra’s Roncaglie vineyard, plus the cherry on the cake: Nebbiolo da Barolo from the Monforte vineyard of Le Coste! Total production will be tiny at 8k bottles/anno.
They are now on the lookout for another vineyard, so dite-crociate!