The 2011 vintage of Barolo Vignarionda is the first one that we have made, and we decided to launch not only this vintage, but this wine, as a Future. We will have around 1,800 bottles of Barolo Vignarionda 2011 and our vision is that, through our importers, it will be offered to private clients only – this was the tradition of Tommaso Canale and his father, Aldo.

These two cousins of ours, proud custodians of Vignarionda for many years, farmed the treasured plot that was first acquired by Ester Canale Rosso’s grandfather. Also called Tommaso Canale, he bought the vineyard in 1934, the same year that he helped to found the Barolo Consorzio.

For over 40 years, from 1970, it was owned by cousin Aldo and his son, before it returned to the ownership of Ester and her son, Davide Rosso, on April 23rd 2011 - along with many vines planted by Ester’s grandfather in 1946, from which our Barolo Vignarionda 2011 is produced.

With such a limited quantity of wine available from this revered vineyard, Davide and his mother, Ester, had in mind the idea to offer this wine to those who appreciate that some things are worth more than money: time, place, a symbiotic relationship between a family and its land.

Futures is a way of selling that is almost untried here in the Langhe, but more than that, we hope that it will create a new, even closer, relationship between Vignarionda and those who buy and drink it.

WHY BUY A 'WINE FUTURE'?

The classic reason to buy in this way is to ensure that you secure wine which may be available in very limited quantities. The two regions most closely linked with this system are Bordeaux and Burgundy, the latter associated, like Barolo, with single-vineyard wines made in tiny quantities – perhaps no more than a few hundred cases.

Production of Vignarionda is even more limited than most of the great Burgundies – circa 150 cases in total: around half that of Romanée-Conti – and buying as a Future is the only way to secure any stock from this legendary Cru. Any wine unsold following the Futures offer will remain in the Canale family’s cellar as historic stock, perhaps for future generations to enjoy.

How is Vignarionda Futures different ?

Our Barolo Vignarionda is being offered in this way in order to ensure the future of this great vineyard. Barolo Vignarionda Futures will help to pay for the replanting and maintenance of the land and the vines for the next decade or more before the young vines are ready to produce Barolo Vignarionda

This is our commitment to the next generation and beyond. Using Futures, we are writing the next chapter in Vignarionda’s history – a chapter that will have at its core the customers who will buy this wine: the true friends of Vignarionda and of the Canale family.