Winemaker Notes
Critical Acclaim
All Vintages
The farm was founded by Bosco Pietro (1904 – 1983).
The farm’s primary business has always been in wine-growing, with especial attention up until the 1970s to grape production. In 1979 the grapes so carefully grown were removed from the market to make room for wine-making, bringing to the market the wine that until then had been limited to family consumption. This new enterprise was met with so much success that Pietro was soon joined by his youngest son Agostino, who worked with patience and precision and was gifted with intuition for work in both the vineyard and the cellar.
After the death of his father (1983), Agostino continued working on the farm, demonstrating such commitment and love for the work as to involve his wife Carla and to find in the world of wine a passion for his son Andrea as well, who received a wine-making diploma at Alba’s Scuola Enologica and has dedicated his life to continual research and experimentation of the mysteries of this fascinating art. Today the farm continues to be run as a family business with one goal: achieve grapes of the maximum quality to be transformed into a wine with personality rendering it special and unique.
In March 2006 the extensions of the cellar structures was completed, increasing the underground aging area and the bottling area on the ground floor to 150m2 each, in addition to the construction of new tasting and office facilities.
The total vined surface area of the farm is currently at about 4 hectares divided between nebbiolo, barbera and dolcetto. All vineyards are property of and found exclusively within the confines of the Comune of La Morra.
The center of the production of the world’s most exclusive and age-worthy red wines made from Nebbiolo, the Barolo wine region includes five core townships: La Morra, Monforte d’Alba, Serralunga d’Alba, Castiglione Falletto and the Barolo village itself, as well as a few outlying villages. The landscape of Barolo, characterized by prominent and castle-topped hills, is full of history and romance centered on the Nebbiolo grape. Its wines, with the signature “tar and roses” aromas, have a deceptively light garnet color but full presence on the palate and plenty of tannins and acidity. In a well-made Barolo wine, one can expect to find complexity and good evolution with notes of, for example, strawberry, cherry, plum, leather, truffle, anise, fresh and dried herbs, tobacco and violets.
There are two predominant soil types here, which distinguish Barolo from the lesser surrounding areas. Compact and fertile Tortonian sandy marls define the vineyards farthest west and at higher elevations. Typically the Barolo wines coming from this side, from La Morra and Barolo, can be approachable relatively early on in their evolution and represent the “feminine” side of Barolo, often closer in style to Barbaresco with elegant perfume and fresh fruit.
On the eastern side of the Barolo wine region, Helvetian soils of compressed sandstone and chalks are less fertile, producing wines with intense body, power and structured tannins. This more “masculine” style comes from Monforte d’Alba and Serralunga d’Alba. The township of Castiglione Falletto covers a spine with both soil types.
The best Barolo wines need 10-15 years before they are ready to drink, and can further age for several decades.
Responsible for some of the most elegant and age-worthy wines in the world, Nebbiolo, named for the ubiquitous autumnal fog (called nebbia in Italian), is the star variety of northern Italy’s Piedmont region. Grown throughout the area, as well as in the neighboring Valle d’Aosta and Valtellina, it reaches its highest potential in the Piedmontese villages of Barolo, Barbaresco and Roero. Outside of Italy, growers are still very much in the experimentation stage but some success has been achieved in parts of California. Somm Secret—If you’re new to Nebbiolo, start with a charming, wallet-friendly, early-drinking Langhe Nebbiolo or Nebbiolo d'Alba.