April 2025

Langhe producers are slightly newer to the elite wine scene when compared to many of their European counterparts such as Burgundy, Bordeaux, Champagne, the Mosel, and even parts of Austria - most of the premier estates here were ‘established’ by a grandfather or great-grandfather of the current winemaker. But winemaking here does go back very far, and as we learned from many of the producers, even though their families may not have been making the wine in the middle ages (or later), they have family ties to vineyards and the growing of the grapes. 

Our first day in Barolo was one of our busiest with a quick morning appointment: 8:30am at Reverdito. This tiny family affair was the smallest we visited on the trip, working out of a garage in La Morra and producing lovely Barolos (15 wines at 8:30am is a better way to start a trip than you may think). From there we were on to Oddero, one of the premier producers in the region (as well as one of the most historic - they were one of the first to export wine to America in the late 19th century). The winery is currently helmed by a trio of Oddero’s: Mariacristina, matriarch and winemaker and her children Isabella and Pietro. Isabella skews more towards the winemaking/vineyard management and Pietro leans to the international business side of things (this was about a week before the inauguration and he animatedly grilled us on what the tariff situation was going to be, sadly we knew as much as he did). Oddero makes Barolo in the traditional manner: a long, 30 day - 60 day, maceration/fermentation in old oak before extended aging in huge slavonian barrels. Some riservas will spend time in smaller French barrels, but those are not the norm. The Barbera d’Alba Superiore in this month’s bag is comprised of their top Barbera fruit from vineyards within Barolo (not all of Barolo’s vineyards are planted to Nebbiolo), fermented in stainless steel for 10 days before 16 months of aging in old oak. This is a quite elevated expression of Barbera.

From Oddero we made our way to lunch (eagerly booked for us by Pietro at a local restaurant - winemakers booking us lunch/dinner was a theme in the Langhe) in Castiglione Falleto - walnut crusted steak, wonderful - and then on to our final meeting at Fenocchio, farther south. Fenocchio was an excellent visit and we have a couple of their wines in the shop, but nothing in this month’s bag, so that’s all you get on Fenocchio! 

The next day was another three-visit day, but incredibly productive as the other three wines this month all came from these producers! We started the morning with a little drive from La Morra up to Barbaresco, where we met with Luigi Giordano winemaker Matteo Giordano, grandson of the eponymous Luigi. Matteo works closely with his mother Laura in the vineyard and on the winemaking. This is a fascinating family that has lived in the small village of Barbaresco for a long time and seen their winemaking roots literally sink into the hillside from the old family home. As Luigi started making more and more wine he began carving into the hillside under his house to create caves for aging. At the same time he was building upwards, and multiple generations of the Giordano family live in the suites above the winery (Matteo lives a hundred yards up the street, thankfully he’s still invited to Sunday dinners). The tour of the winemaking facilities was the first where we saw a heavy use of cement as the fermentation vessel, something that comes through in all of their wines with a softness that’s quite nice. We tasted a wide range of their wines, all of which were excellent. They make a sparkling Nebbiolo brut rosé that’s unbelievable and we’ll be bringing in come summer time. We already have one of their Barbarescos (from a vineyard we toured) in the shop. The two wines in your bag are two of their easy-going reds: a classic, crunchy Dolcetto and a really unique Langhe Rosso that incorporates 20% Arneis, a white grape we’ll be getting more of shortly. The other 80% is fresh-pressed Nebbiolo and the wine is wildly fresh and delicious. As far as everyday wines I’d go back to time and time again, the Giordano line is pretty top notch with its non-Barbaresco offerings. From Giordano we cruised over to Cantina Massara, tasted a bunch of wine, they set us up for lunch, lunch was delicious - best gnocchi I’ve ever had - and we were on to Bruna Grimaldi, our final stop of the day.

Located in the northeast corner of Barolo, in the small commune of Grinzane Cabour, Bruna Grimaldi was the most modern winemaking story we encountered in the Langhe. Modern in that it’s not very old, their techniques are quite traditional. Founded by current winemaker Bruna Grimaldi and her husband Franco Fiorino, the first ‘proper’ Bruna Grimaldi wine was bottled in 1999. The story goes a bit further back though, as Bruna’s father and grandfather were both grapegrowers and dabbled in some winemaking here and there. Bruna, though, brought everything together into the estate that it is today (Franco, for his part, added a handful of his family’s vineyards to the total holdings of the winery). Here, once again, a winemaker works hand-in-hand with her children, Simone and Martina. An inverse of Oddero, here the son, Simone is the winemaker and Martina handles the business side. We spent a few lovely hours with Simone, with a couple of pop-ins from Bruna (who doesn’t speak a lick of English but is vibrant and thrilled to engage with us). The winery, while modern, is still a work in progress, the barrel room is the highlight, with a huge range of barrels and botti in the main room and a tasting room that’s under construction. The winery has come a long way in the 25 years since the first bottle was released, they now make a fairly wide range of single-vineyard Barolos in addition to their Langhe/Alba level wines. Where Giordano certainly had a house style, Grimaldi’s wines were each their own, owing a lot, it seems, to Simone having taken over primary winemaking duties in the last few years. There’s lots of excitement about how these wines will continue to develop. While we mostly tasted reds, this was where I tasted my favorite Arneis of the trip. Arneis, the primary white grape of the Langhe, is still hugely overshadowed by the many types of red wine produced here, but this is a gorgeous example of what the varietal brings to the table.

 

After finishing up at Grimaldi we headed back to La Morra for an excellent evening out, a day off on Sunday, and a visit to one of Barolo’s kingpins, Roberto of Giacamo Conterno before heading south to Liguria and Tuscany. 

While this brings a close to my jaunt through Italy, Emily and I plan to squeeze a quick vacation in before the busy season and are off to France in a couple of weeks where we’ll be visiting a handful of producers in the Loire Valley. So! Soon enough there should be another wine club with some fun first-hand experiences.