Winemaker Notes
Critical Acclaim
All VintagesDrawing its fruit from Monforte d'Alba, the 2015 Barolo Bricco San Pietro shows a slow-moving bouquet that unfolds slowly to reveal a robust and dark bouquet redolent of plum, blackberry and black currant. The wine takes a little time to unwind and open, but once it does, you are made more aware of varietal tones of licorice, tar and ferrous earth.
Her great grandfather Giuseppe cultivated the sharecropper vineyards: the dream was to own the land but he had too short a life to see it realized and so her grandfather Angelo had to think about it. Farmer and grafter (for necessity of those post-phylloxera years) began building the company in 1936 with the plan to enlarge what was a very small property for a large family.
He was followed by her father Giuseppe, who in the years of the great industrialization had the merit of not moving to the city like most of his peers to work in the factory, but remained tied to his vineyards, taking care of his father's ones, buying land and planting it others. Unfortunately, the years were very difficult for quality wine, so her parents gave up making wine, giving the production of grapes to the nearest social winery.
The turning point for the company occurred in 1989, when her father informed her of his intention to extirpate some vineyards. In those years her husband and she took care of different professions, even though we both come from vine-grower families. After a short period they decided to go back to their origins and to resume the job of the vineyard, with the aim of producing only quality wines.
With Franco they have planted vineyards, built cellars, a market ... But the most important result was their 2 children: Federico, born in 1990 and Lorenzo born in 1994. Federico works with them today, taking care of sales above all, he is animated by a great passion for his land. Lorenzo is especially passionate about the gastronomic side of the Langhe and is completing his training in the kitchens of the world.
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.