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.
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.
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.
Lying in the heart of one of Barolo’s most famous vineyard’s Cannubi in the village of Barolo, this small, traditional, 5th generation family-owned cantina (winery) dates back to 1897, and to Cavalier Francesco Borgogno. More recently it was his descendants, brothers Serio and Battista Borgogno who set about developing the cantina during the 1960s and ‘70s when the emphasis was largely on quantity not quality, buying in fruit/wine to fill their outsized winery. Today the baton has been passed to Serio’s daughters Anna (Bolla) and Paola (Boffa) and in turn their offspring Emanuela and Federica respectively. Anna’s husband Marco is making the wine, aided by Emanuela and since 2012 by enologo Luca Sarotto. These days the focus is increasingly on their vineyard holding of Cannubi, with plots facing south, north/east and west, while they continue to buy some fruit in for a separate white label range.
Vinification is traditional, fermenting in large wooden vats, before racking to Garbellotto and Veneto slavonian oak botte of up to 52hl for traditionally long affinamento/elevage. They also release a long aged Riserva in good years. The Dolcetto comes from their Liste vineyard in the village of Barolo.
In vintage 2018, they launched two new wines: Langhe Nascetta & Langhe Nebbiolo!
> Converting to organic.
‘Conterno’ is a surname that’s synonymous with Monforte d’Alba, & coincidentally quite a few of them are Barolo producers!
This Conterno family is related to that of Conterno-Fantino through father Diego – but unrelated when it comes to wine style! – & their new winery is ironically located just up the slope from Giacomo Conterno, of no relation. Diego, a graduate of the Umberto 1 Enological School, is well-grounded in making traditional Barolo, having worked under Beppe Colla at Prunotto. In 2000 Diego decided to sell his share of Conterno-Fantino, take his vines including the plum Ginestra plot, & started afresh.
While 2003 was their first vintage as ‘Diego Conterno’, producing all of 1300 bts of Barolo (Ginestra), the family’s history dates back to the post WWII Baroli of ancestors Lorenzo & Attilio Conterno. 2005 witnessed 100% of the estate fruit being bottled. Father & son tend the vines & make the wines; Stefano joining in 2010 – the first year their Sori Ginestra was bottled separately! Aided by a new wing to their winery in 2014, allowing them a bit more space, Diego & Stefano are making classic Monforte Barolo: static fermenters (not rotos), cement & the use of increasingly large botte grande (another two due late 2016), to give broad, brambly & minerally pure Baroli. But perhaps the winery’s greatest surprise, apart from the profondita of their Barolo Ginestra, is the pineapply Langhe Nascetta, grown on grey marl soils – rich & minerally!
Diego, his wife Anna & ‘children’ Stefano (27 & a surveyor by training) & Lorenza (now a nurse), have 7.5ha of vineyards located in the village; 2ha of which are in the ‘Grand Cru’ vineyard of Ginestra, the ‘Sori’ (full south) heart of which faces plum south at right angles to the sun & was planted in 1982. The remaining 5.5ha are split between Nebbiolo for Barolo vineyards of San Pietro, Pajana & Gris (grey in dialect on account of its fine grey marl soil); they also have Nebbiolo (d’Alba), Barbera, Dolcetto & Nascetta planted in the full west facing Ferrione vineyard below the winery itself. From vintage 2018, the family has begun renting a small parcel of Monforte Le Coste!
Since 2010 all the vineyards have been converted to organic, & certified in 2014.
Cantina Mascarello Bartolo remains one of the most revered Barolo domaines. Founded in 1919, its reputation was secured by the founder Giulio, then his son, the late great Bartolo Mascarello and since 2005 by his daughter Maria-Teresa Mascarello, whose first vintage was in 1993.
Giulio’s father Bartolomeo had moved from the La Morra borgata of Torriglione to Barolo, along with his parcel of Rocche dell’Annunziata, working in the Cantina Sociale located in the village of Barolo, & working his way to become Presidente before it closed with the onset of the 1915-18 War. By which time he had married Teresa Bianco of the village. Indeed it was Bartolomeo & his son Giulio who set up the family business ‘in proprio’ in 1919. Giulio then married Maria Rinaldi…hence Maria-Teresa Mascarello!
The 5 hectare domaine lies in the Barolo village on prime sandy calcareous clay Tortonian soils, with the vineyards of Cannubi, San Lorenzo, Ruè, & Rocche del Annunziata (La Morra) at its heart. Vintage 2014 was the last harvest of the old vine vineyard San Lorenzo, that was then left fallow & replanted. The fruit of the new San Lorenzo vines were first added to vintage 2020.
From 2015, the cantina has rented vines in Monrobiolo di Bussia, close to those of their Dolcetto & Freisa vines.
Only one Barolo continues to be made, co-fermenting the fruit from different vineyards, respecting tradition & benefitting from the sum of the parts: a classic blend.
The style remains traditional. The fruit is co-fermented, with vinification taking place in cement & wooden cuves, without recourse to yeast or temperature control. The Barolo is aged for approx. 3 years in 25 hl Slavonian botte (all recently replaced), followed by 1 year in bottle prior to release.
Maria-Teresa believes quite simply that the key to great wine is to produce the healthiest, ripest fruit possible.
Essentially organic but will resort to chemicals if absolutely necessary.
> Nothing currently available as demand exceeds supply