Eighty-year-old vines, partially preserved since 1946 and partly renewed in an attempt to give new life to the work of Tommasino Canale. In early 2011, Davide Rosso replaced a large part of the now-exhausted vines with a careful and delicate replanting: he cloned the massal selection of the original vines and immediately noticed the great potential of those grapes. Wines capable of capturing the exceptional quality and prestige of this MGA with its perfectly south-facing exposure, calcareous soil, and plants, both old and new, worked internally by hand.
A vineyard that leaves no room for compromise: we prefer to limit the harvest and bottling to very few examples.
It was the pioneering attitude, mixed with sacrifice and determination, that marked the origins and dictated the prestigious future of Vignarionda, born at the hands of Tommaso Canale and his wife Esterina. Not at all wealthy but passionate about wine, they purchased some of Serralunga's finest vineyards, including this promising Cru, a forerunning return to their roots.
It was 1934 and nothing seemed to dent the courage of the Canale family, despite economic tribulations and hail, they were always helped by their sons Aldo and Amelio. Then came the war and in 1945 the death of Tommaso. It was a highly symbolic year that marked a new challenge for the two brothers and the vines they replanted in 1946 are still there today, worked by Amelio's nephew.
It was the loss of "Grandpa Amelio" in 1963, as well as the labor crisis in the depopulating Piedmont countryside, that led to an inevitable decision: the renunciation of Vignarionda, by his heirs, wife Cristina Canale and daughter Ester, in favor of Aldo.
The baton of that exceptional site passed to Tommasino in 1998: endowed with the same passion as his grandfather, the founder, he manifested a unique bond with his grandson Davide Rosso, son of his sister Ester, from the very beginning.
In December 2010, Tommaso died suddenly, leaving a huge void in the family - a setback that was also the beginning of a new historical cycle, or rather a circle destined to retrace itself, just as a vine comes back to life when spring takes the place of winter.
On April 22, 2011, ownership of the original 0.85 hectare plot, that was once Amelio’s passed to Azienda Agricola Giovanni Rosso, the winery founded by Ester's husband. Thus, forty years after being forced to sell, Ester Canale is once again the owner of "her" Vignarionda."
The work that Tommaso Canale brought to the vineyards owned once by Aldo and Amelio Canale, Davide Rosso's grandfather has a long future: at the time of his untimely death, some vintages of Vignarionda had yet to be bottled.
In addition to acquiring the Vignarionda vineyard, Davide and his mother, Ester Canale Rosso, have selected a small amount of Tommaso's wine (the 2007, 2008 and 2009 vintages) with the goal of bottling a small portion, with a limited run of no more than 1,000 bottles per year, which will be offered with a design dating back to the acquisition of firstborn Vignarionda, in 1934, and the label used by our cousin. A tribute to one of Serralunga's greatest figures, who helped found the Barolo Consortium.
The first vintage from Vignarionda produced by Davide at Az. Agr. Giovanni Rosso is the 2011 and marks the beginning of a new chapter in the history of the vineyard and the family's bond with it. That is why Ester and Davide decided to launch it as Futures, in a limited run of 1,800 bottles and with the perspective that was Tommaso Canale and his father Aldo's; that only private customers will be able to buy them.
And it is with the Futures project, something almost unheard of in the Langhe area, but very common in Bordeaux and Burgundy, that the decision was made to continue selling the precious vintages of Vignarionda, guaranteeing the future of this great vineyard.
It is a method that puts the customers at the center, providing them with bottles that may not be available in the future.
Any unsold en primeur wine will remain in the Canale family as historical stock. In addition, Barolo Vignarionda Futures will help to pay the replanting and maintenance of the land and vines for the next decade or more before the young vines are ready to produce Barolo Vignarionda.
It is the strip of land that defines the northern profile of the municipality of Serralunga d'Alba, with an enviable south-eastern exposure, that is home to the MGA Cerretta, one of the Additional Geographical Mentions of Barolo DOCG. With its typically clayey and calcareous soil, conferred by the fossilised marls of Sant'Agata, and its 360 metres of altitude, it ensures the wine's persistent intensity on the palate and longevity in vintages.
Partially replanted in 1984 and then in 2000, this vineyard has been owned by the Giovanni Rosso winery since 1920. It comprises 3.5 hectares of vines, that are pruned by hand using the Guyot method, thinned and defoliated according to the peculiarities of the vineyard and its development, from one area to another. The last topping is held in mid-August, then the vines are allowed to develop spontaneously, until the grapes achieve phenolic maturation.
The result is a full-bodied, enveloping and silky wine, perhaps the most "feminine" of the family's Barolos, as assertive and tannic as it is floral.
An elegance and depth that become the emblem of Barolo wine in the world: this is the trait of the MGA Serra, as prominent as its hosting land, one of the highest in the commune of Serralunga d’Alba.
Owned by the Rosso family since 1946 and with replanting in 1984, 1996 and, subsequently, 2003, the Serra vineyard requires constant care and thorough work in the thinning and defoliation stages. This must be balanced according to the vintage and varying altitude, there are parts where the sun beats all day and parts in shade that require stronger pruning to ensure the optimum conditions the wine deserves.
If our Barolo MGAs have become famous on their own merit, the other estate vineyards dedicated to Nebbiolo and Barbera nonetheless possess the ideal characteristics to become the terroir of unique Piedmontese wines. Places, due to their complexity – the sum of soil composition, altitude, slope and exposure – that have become the stronghold of wines bearing the Giovanni Rosso signature.
Our recent acquisitions include the MGA Meriame, perched on the eponymous hill in Serralunga—a historic calcareous site brimming with potential. Similarly, the MGA Costabella, whose exposure, although superb, forced us in 1997 to drape newspapers over the vines to shield the grapes from the August sun. In Serralunga d'Alba, we also cultivate Sorano and Lirano, and the cool, breezy MGA Damiano, whose mineral-rich soil seems sculpted by nature to embody the essence of Giovanni Rosso wines.
Forged for generations among the hills of the Langhe, the Rosso family decided in 2016 to embark on a new challenge, a parallel project that is not meant to oppose the production of Barolo wines but, on the contrary is meant to reaffirm and strengthen what has always been a vocation: to make wines that are the perfect copy of their terroir.
We set our sights high, and not only in a metaphorical sense, looking to Etna and at the 750-meter altitude of an area so suited to red wines that it has made great the wineries linked to the DOC that bears its name.
We are in Solicchiata di Castiglione di Sicilia, on the northeastern slope of the volcano: here, in a unique microclimate, the Giovanni Rosso winery has acquired a single extensive plot of fourteen hectares, for now only partially planted with Carricante and Nerello Mascarese grapes, alternating with small quantities of other varieties as per local tradition.
Inspired by indigenous methodology, we opted for double inverted guyot and two-dimensional sapling cultivation. The goal, in the next few years, is to renovate the ancient millstone at the entrance to our estate, at the foot of the small extinct crater of Contrada Montedolce, as well as to plant new vines trying to express even better the potential of the lava sand soil we have bet on, imprinting it with the elegance that distinguishes us.
VAT: IT02563270046 RODDINO 10/1 STREET - 12050 SERRALUNGA D'ALBA (CN) - ITALY
Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy
