Tucked away in the frazione/hamlet of Santa Maria di La Morra is (eventually!) found the family cantina of Crissante Alessandria. Both family names, Crissante & Alessandria, originate from Santa Maria, & their 6 hectares of vines (+ 5ha of hazelnuts), of which 5 are planted to Nebbiolo, lie an ox-drive’s distance from the cantina, surrounding the frazione; notably the vineyards of Roggeri, San Biagio, Bertolotti, Capalot, & Galina.
The cantina’s story began in 1958, with the first commercial bottles produced in the 1970s when the estate was a tiny 2-3 hectares. Skip forward to 2005 when 8th generation Alberto Alessandria (nato 1985), owner & winemaker, graduated from Alba’s Enological School Umberto 1. He then joined his family in 2007, triggering a series of investments in the cantina – notably the introduction of new Garbellotto botti grandi. In 2008 his ‘nonno’ Crissante passed away, & in doing so passed the baton to Alberto.
Their 3ha vineyard of Roggeri surrounds the cantina, is comprised of Lampia vines planted between 1957 & 2012, is situated at 210m asl, facing SE, & the soil is composed of a heavy grey & brown calcareous clay, cool & humid. Their prime plot of 0.4ha Capalot is situated further up the hill, faces S, just above the Santa Maria to La Morra road, in a natural amphiteatro, at 320m asl on sand & clay; the vines date from the 1970s & more recently from 2003; ‘La Punta’ dei Capalot sits just up from the road, behind the outsized red bench/pachina, & is home to some of Crissante’s oldest vines, many ‘pie franco’ that each year produce c. 200 magnums of late harvest, late release Barolo ‘La Punta’! Just below the same strada, over looking Santa Maria, is their tiny 0.8ha Galina at 300m asl, facing SW, on a poor, white calcareous clay (similar to Bricco Ambrogio in fact); 0.2ha was (high density) planted in the 1922 & then in 1945 on original rootstock (piede franco), while the rest was replanted using Michet clones in 2014, with final old vine vintage being 2016; it was first released as a Barolo ‘cru’ in vintge 2007; from vintage 2018 Galina will be aged in a 40HL botte grande. They also own vines in Bettolotti (facing Verduno) & (sandy) San Biagio (opposite the cantina), which are blended into their Barolo del comune di La Morra.
Keen to gain experience & insight, from vintage 2020 Alberto & his family began to buy fruit from Verduno’s Monvigliero vineyard, courtesy of a chance encounter with a fellow Santa Maria neighbour who was having trouble with red spider mite in his vineyard – a problem Alberto duly resolved, thereby beginning the relationship. From 2023, Alberto was fortunate to be able to buy organic Villero & Rocche di Castiglione fruit from a grower in Castiglione Falletto, & then in 2024 he completed the set by buying fruit from vineyard Lazzarito in Serralunga d’Alba. All four Barolos will be released under a separate ‘negoce‘ label to distinguish the provenance from their own estate fruit.
Vinification is traditional, using static, vertical stainless-steel fermenting tanks, light pumping over for delicacy (not submerged cap, that extracts more), classic maceration times of c. 20 days, malolactic in the steel tanks before transfer to botti grandi & barriques (to accommodate Galina’s tiny production). Pressed wine is all but excluded as Alberto prides himself on making one of the region’s finest & smoothest Grappa!
From 2013 converting to organic but non certificate.
An exciting family estate, headed up by the irrepressible Bruna, & her husband Franco (Fiorino of Ricca), whose 14ha of vineyards cover four villages (communes) of Grinzane Cavour, Roddi, La Morra & Serralunga d’Alba.
Bruna’s father Giovanni (nato ’33) had sold wine in bulk, in demi-john or occasionally in bottle when the year was propitious. Export markets didn’t exist & they mostly produced Dolcetto, the local favourite! From 1989, with the arrival of Bruna & Franco in the cantina they started bottling every year. They started bottling commercially under the ‘Bruna Grimaldi’ label in 1999. It was Bruna who began exporting their wines. In 2015 their son Simone graduated from the Alba wine school, Umberto 1, having started working in the cantina from 2013. Their daughter Martina worked as a Wine Buyer in London, but since December 2018 has returned to Grinzane to help the family entreprise!
In those early days they flirted with tonneaux, plus a couple of botti grandi (from 2000), but a new bottaio in 2014 has given them more space to invest in five more botti grandi of 16HL, 21HL & 30HL, along with more 500/700litre tonneaux; indeed two 50HL troncoconico wooden vats are in-bound! They vinify their wines in a mix of stainless-steel & cement vats. Malolactic generally takes place in cement, soon after the alcoholic ferment, to ensure the wine is clean going into wood. In 2008 they first started employing the ‘cappello sommerso’/submerged cap method of extending the maceration, staked down in the s/s vats (to achieve a rounder tannin profile).
Grinzane Cavour is where the winery is located, & birthplace of Bruna’s father Giovanni, hence their plots in the crus of Borzone (1ha planted in 2012 & 2007 at 220m asl) & Raviole (0.84ha at 280m asl planted in 2000).
Serralunga d’Alba is home to Bruna’s mother Clara (Scarzello) – a.k.a ‘La Badarina’! It’s her family that own a prize, 2ha piece, ave. 20 yo vines of the Badarina vineyard, 400m asl high up, lying just across the road from Boscareto & Francia. Their best-exposed plot & monopole, Vigna Regnola becomes the Badarina Riserva.
In the commune of Roddi, they have two fine plots in the heart of the Bricco Ambrogio vineyard (0.7ha & 0.2ha aged between 10-25yo), that Bruna & her husband bought together in 2006; first vintage 2007. 2007 is also the year when the family stopped using herbicides in their vineyards.
They also have 2.5ha of south-facing vines at 240m asl in La Morra’s Roere di Santa Maria vineyard (10 yo & 40 yo vines, the Roere planted in 1972); yet a glance & whiff tells you this vineyard belongs in Verduno – indeed it lies on the confine/border, not far from the Roero!
Finally they have vineyards in the comune of Diano d’Alba & (salty) Sinio (Vigna del Gallo), that make up approx. 60% of their Nebbiolo d’Alba; the remainder being from Roddi.
Their Barolo Classico is a very generously layered blend of fruit from five vineyards across four villages (Bricco Ambrogio, Roddi; Borzone & Raviole in Grinzane Cavour; Roere di Santa Maria in La Morra; & Badarina of Serralunga d’Alba).
Since vintage 2014 they have been farming organically.
press recognition: http://www.cantinatibaldi.com/news_eventi.asp
Sisters Monica & Daniela come from a long line of Tibaldis, many of whom lie on the same road close to the village of Pocapaglia in the Roero. It was their great grandfather Stefano who began working the vines during the early 20th century, followed by his son Tunin when he wasn’t working in a factory, inspiring the girls to launch the family cantina/winery in 2014. They’re supported by their father Stefano, a gifted ironmonger who doubles up as a ‘trattorista’ (tractor driver) in his spare time, & by their mother Margherita, a cowgirl from Saluzzo. Daniela (& Monica) trained in accountancy, then as a sommelier, while her older sister Monica studied viticulture & enology at Turin University, followed by a further year in Asti & a Masters in Madrid!
They have close to 7ha in total, located in three distinct MGA zones: Mormoré & Bricco delle Passere in the commune of Pocapaglia & the Coste Anforiano vineyard in Santa Vittoria. In Pocapaglia the hilly soils are Miocenic marine sand (stone), rich with fossils in origin, ideal for their two key white grapes/wines: Favorita & Arneis. In 2012 they identified a perfect 0.7ha Nebbiolo vineyard for their Roero DOCG: Coste Anforiano, that lies on limestone white Marne Sant’Agata clay soils, looking across the Tanaro river valley at Verduno; their debut vintage was 2014. They also make some Barbera & Nebbiolo d’Alba.
The whites are classically vinified in stainless steel, using wild yeasts from vintage 2015. The Roero DOCG was initially aged in used barriques but the girls have decided that botti grandi is the future, switching to botti grandi with the 2015 vintage, & then investing in one of 10HL & another of 25HL for the 2016 harvest.
In 2019 they released their first Roero Arneis Metodo Classico ‘Pas Dosé’ from vintage 2015!
They farm organically, & converting to certified from 2014.
In recent years, the Barolo village of Verduno has become a magnet for Nebbiolo (& Pinot Nero!) appassionati! Once regarded as being a marginal Barolo comune (seat) on account of its small size, when compared to the big three originals: Serralunga d’Alba, Castiglione Falletto & Barolo (each with 100% of Nebbiolo da Barolo vineyards within the comune boundaries), perhaps it’s thanks to Verduno’s very size, its prettiness & sleepiness, its unassuming & gentle residents, low contours that seem an extension of the Roero into the Langhe, & (surprise, surprise) the charmingly soft, perfumed, Pinot-esque Barolos epitomised by the great Monvigliero vineyard, that has seen it now become something of a ‘mecca’.
The Alessandria (& Burlotto) family are central to Verduno, just as ‘Conterno’ is to Monforte, Canale to Serralunga, Mascarello to La Morra, Borgogno in Barolo etc…. The current 5th generation of F.lli Alessandria: Vittore (from 2001), along with his uncle Ale (from 2000), father Gian-Battista & mother Flavia (a most welcome incomer from Monforte!) starting making prized wine back in the 18th century, but it’s this family team, supported by Tiziana in the ufficio, that has been turning heads of late.
Much credit to Ale (Alessandria), who tends the 14ha of vines, often on his Lamborghini caterpillar tractor, while Vittore faffs about in the cantina. These past years they’ve been investing in new botti, “paying more attention (esp. the vineyard)” as Vitto says, & focusing on autochthonous grapes.
1978 was the first release (in the village) of their Barolo Monvigliero – the label identical to that of today.
2001 saw the first release of their Barolo Gramolere, from Flavia (Manzone)’s prime old vine plot high up on dark sandstone over tufo soils that face pure west.
In vintage 2015 their San Lorenzo di Verduno made a welcome return as a single vineyard Barolo, having been first made in 1997, but then in 2014 its yields were so low that it was blended into the family’s classic Barolo.
From 2017 the young vine fruit from their Gramolere vyd has grown up, & will no longer be blended into their classic Barolo, so this becomes their first (& the village’s debut) Barolo del comune di Verduno!
Though the first bottling of their Barolo Briccolina was of vintage 2012 (in July 2015), the Grasso family of Azienda Agricola La Briccolina have occupied the spectacular bricco of this vineyard in the high part of Serralunga d’Alba, at 350 metres asl, lying adjacent to Ornato & beyond Falletto, since 1922; indeed the cascina looks west (the vines SW) straight across the valley to Elio Grasso’s winery & borgata, from where the family ‘migrated’! The intervening 90 years have been spent selling off fruit to a more famous neighbour, while Tiziano worked at Fontanafredda.
Simona, Tiziano’s wife, also has contadina roots; her family coming from Dogliani. But it was Tiziano’s son Daniele, who works by day at Bataisolo, who spurred the family on to bottle their own fruit from the finest 0.4ha (out of a total 5.5ha) of 50yo vines rather than give it all away. A new cantina has been fitted out in the ancient cellar beneath the family house; the vinification a classic c. 20 day s/s & botte grande (Garbellotto). The first CLC cement tank arrived earlier this year to house the wine prior to bottling. For now they make just the one wine, Barolo Briccolina.
Now, without Tiziano by their side, it is Simona & Dany who must take this great little cantina forward.
This jewel of a Brunello di Montalcino estate was first planted in 1978 by Federigo Abbarchi and Angela Corioni on marne and iron-rich red silt soils at 450 msl on the north-western corner of Montalcino; bottling beginning in 1982 under the eye of Giulio Gambelli. Meanwhile Loredana Tanganelli, the daughter of Montalcino’s postino (postman) & current custodian of the Scopetone estate, was either just being born or was soon to embark on a career in carpentry & apiary, before planting some vines in Montecucco, near Porrona, during the early 2000s.
In 2003 Loredana the apiarist met Antonio Brandi the zafferano farmer from nearby San Quirico, & they planted some more vines together. Daughter Giada was born on 15 January 2005.
Skip to 2009 when Loredana & Antonio started to rent the 1.5ha gem of a Scopetone estate from Angela Corioni, adding 1.5ha of their own land. Now they farm 5ha, with the Montalcino vineyards at between 450 – 480 metres asl. Located high up but below the town’s walls on predominantly cool red Chestnut tree soils along with some galestro, their tiny patch of heaven gazes west, so retaining freshness & poise. Their perfumed, relatively delicate wines are sensitively and traditionally made using stainless-steel and 33hl Pauscha Austrian oak botte.
> Essentially organic but will resort to chemicals if absolutely necessary.
In the southern-western corner of Sardinia lie the former coal fields of Carbonia. Closer to the coast the carbon land is covered by sand, and to free-standing, ungrafted, unirrigated Carignano vines that yield a naturally small crop of compact bunches, rich with sweet juice. It’s also home to the Esu family, custodians of Carignano, at their Carbonia estate.
Enrico Esu family were originally pastori/shepherds, who in the Sardinian tradition, created family settlements called ‘medau’, along with vineyards. Both the Pheonicians & Romans planted coastal footholds on the island, notably at Sulcis & Sant’Antioco, but never conquered the indigenous people who lived inland. Enrico’s father Silvio – whom he refers to as a cross between a farmer and a miner – planted their 10 hectares of Carignano (aka Mazuelo) back in 1958. It’s a grape first propagated by the (Spanish) Bourbons during their four-hundred-year occupation of the island between the 14th and 18th century; indeed Carignano was originally known as ‘Axina de Spagna’.
Compared to the more commercially, volume driven neighbors reliant on spalliera/rows, vine clones & vigorous rootstocks that gave Carignano a bad name, the Esu family treasured the original, ancient, ‘alberello’ ungrafted/piede franco vines, with their loose bunches and look to perpetuate them on account of their excellent fruit.
Following years of selling the (prized) fruit off, Enrico decided in 2013 to make the switch to bottling the wine under the estate label ‘Nerominiera’, so honouring the presence of the now silent coal mines & the men who worked in them. Vinified without oak, at the local cantina sociale (cooperative), Enrico made only 5000 bottles of his inaugural bottling’. From 2015, he began vinifying in his cantina (close to the family’s ‘Medau’) & released the first vintage of ‘Seruci’ Carignano del Sulcis Riserva, from 1958-planted ungrafted vines; ‘Seruci’ being the name of the mine where his father worked his final shift.
> Organic, uncertified.
Born only in 2012 the Trediberri cantina of La Morra pulls together three Piedmontesi (Nicola Oberto & his father Federico and their associate Vladimiro Rambaldi) who’ve invested in 5ha of Berri vineyards, a hamlet of La Morra, back in 2008.
Nicola is a recent graduate of Milan’s Bocconi University, former Merrill Lynch staff, a statistician and a passionate advocate and lover of fine wine. Father Federico has spent forty years working for a local, large Barolo producer, while Nebbiolo enthusiast Vladimiro runs a bank. There’s an important fourth person, Anna Rosa Oberto (mother/wife) who tends the vines fastidiously when not working at the local post office.
In addition to the 5ha, the Oberto family have 2ha of one of the Langhe’s top vineyards: Rocche dell’Annunziata; located in the very heart of the vineyard. Indeed their new winery in the Borgata of Torriglione overlooks the vineyard. Guided by Anna Rosa, they follow a low impact, organic approach to viticulture, while the wines are made traditionally with extended macerations & large oak ageing.
Vintage 2015 Barolo was aged in three new 52Hl botti Garbellotto grandi, alongside an older 48HL one; Rocche dell’Annunziata is aged in one 25HL. From vintage 2017, the Langhe Nebbiolo incorporates fruit from Livio’s Alta Langa 3ha Levice vineyard (for freshness). From 2018, the Oberto family will have regained possession of their full 1.4ha Rocche dell’Annunziata vineyard, with vines back to 1951. In 2019 they’re building a new bottle storage area, & in the same year they’ll be producing – harvest allowing – their first Dolcetto d’Alba from the alta Langa comune of Vicoforte!
> Certified organic since 2015.
Luca Roagna represents the latest generation to work in this historical wine estate, alongside his genial father Alfredo, whose 15 hectares of vine cover both Barabresco and Barolo wine production. However the family’s roots lie in Barbaresco, with Luca’s grandfather buying the Paje vineyard in the 1950s.
The key to understanding Roagna’s wine is their insistence upon biodiverse masale selected and old vineyards (up to 100 year-old in the case of Castiglione Falletto), whose plants are only green harvested up to 15 yo (older vines set their own yields naturally). Harvests tend to be more protracted than their neighbours, while cuvaisons in large conical French Garbellotto botte also outstrip the norm, lasting anything from one to two months, achieving the finest tannins and maximum extraction. The use of sulphur dioxide is minimal if applied at regular intervals. They follow organic principles.
The range is dominated by three Barbaresco crus: Paje, Crichet Paje and Paje Riserva; the difference being the exposition and vine age. Not afraid to innovate, since 1982 they have also offered an ingenious non-vintage, vino di tavola blend of (Barbaresco) Nebbiolo called ‘Opera Prima’ and since ’88 a minerally white Chardonnay/Nebbiolo blend named ‘Solea’.
From Barolo’s Castiglione Falletto village comes their monopole ‘Pira’ cru. Production is small.
> Organic, uncertified.