Billecart-Salmon: enduring history, evolving savoir faire, and six decades of Nicolas François
By 1844, Champagne’s grand marques were already measuring global shipments in millions of bottles. Following phylloxera, consecutive troublesome vintages, and two devastating wars, they acquired vast swathes of land from countless small growers and offered stable long-term contrat de vendange to many more. Subsequently, production grew and consolidated; between 1900 and 2000, production exploded, totalling […]
Chiara Condello: classicism, daring and reviving Predappio
Italy’s economic woes took their toll on Predappio. Today, Chiara Condello has enthused collectors and critics, and is helping revive regional winegrowing.
Carema: heroic viticulture, sudden demise, and a fervent revival
Some two thousand years ago, the first Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus, instructed the construction of Via delle Gallie, a significant road enabling Roman military and political expansion towards the Alps. Carema occupied a strategic position along the road, which intersected the small town at the southern end of the Aosta Valley. Some historians suggest the […]
Oddero: historical foundations, substantial contributions and greater heights
Between 1835 and 1846, Barolo went dry. Before then, winemakers vinified nebbiolo as a sweet wine. And while grapes had been cultivated in Piedmont for many centuries prior, it was during this period that some locals understood winegrowing to be a serious, potentially lucrative endeavour. The Oddero family lived in La Morra at least a […]
Burlotto: Arctic expeditions, Monvigliero and the ‘jewel of Verduno’
Giovan Battista Burlotto bravely reorientated his family business. Today, Fabio Burlotto has taken G.B. Burlotto to new, exemplary heights.
The tasting at Clerico’s: a defining moment in contemporary Langhe history
In 1986, Domenico Clerico brought together like-minded growers and sympathetic activists at his home in Monforte d’Alba. After this moment, everything changed.
Alberto Burzi: continuation, substance and promising beginnings
Alberto and Caterina are the first of their family to make wine. Producing polished, expansive wines, Burzi is cause for excitement and deserving of attention.
Giulia Negri: pragmatism, vivacity and familial flair
Giulia Negri’s great-great-grandfather purchased the families’ Serradenari estate in 1870. Far from having noble intent, Barolo’s highest point served as an escape from his wife living at home in Turin. Each side of Giulia’s family had been engineers, her great-great-grandfather more eccentric than the rest with a daring spirit his children would inherit. It was Giulia’s great-grandmother Emma Diatto who first worked the land, tending to grains, hazelnuts and more. Meanwhile, her grandfather continued the familial tradition of testing boundaries. Giulia’s father recalled a bathroom full of steam as his father tested his latest inventions. Obsessed with truffles, he installed a pump to irrigate the trees, rebuilt his roof to gather water, and installed primitive solar panels. Although her father had worked as a politician and later a journalist, in 2001, he discovered the family estate and replanted it. Born in Palermo and raised in Rome, Giulia studied biotechnology management, working in cancer research where she sought venture capitalists for start-ups. Despite being entirely in love with this work, during a chance visit to Burgundy, she had an altogether revelatory experience with a bottle of 2007 Liger de Belair Aux Reignot. Soon after, she returned to La Morra and later worked harvest in Chile. Although Giulia had always considered herself very smart and able to grasp things, she found something more significant than her in wine. In 2014, at the tender age of 24, Giulia became the steward of her family’s estate. In the years which had preceded, she had learned ferociously, taking on increasing amounts of responsibility, learning at every opportunity. Boasting a modest workforce, she remains a garagiste at heart, eschewing dogma, preferring pragmatism and innovation. Yet, as vibrant and enchanting as her wines, Giulia’s spirit is infectious. Here follows the story of Giulia Negri, the proud Barologirl.
Mauro Veglio: a whole greater than the sum of its parts
The Veglio family have tended land in La Morra since the early-1900s. As was customary, the family produced a range of crops as well as livestock. Each winter, Angelo Veglio—born in 1928—turned his hand to butchery, making salami in his neighbour’s farm. Life was difficult and opportunity scarce. Post-Second World War, though, a small, impassioned […]
Fletcher Wines: serendipity and sleepless nights, from Adelaide to Langhe
Aussie emigrant, Dave Fletcher, was born in Adelaide, the gateway to all 18 of South Australia’s wine regions, including McLaren Vale, Clare Valley, and Coonawarra. Though not hands-on, Dave’s father had been a silent invested in vineyards, and so through the summer holidays, his son earned pocket money pruning. Following a gap year in 1999, Dave left university where he had studied engineering, and before leaving for the UK secured a place at Adelaide University to study winemaking. After a year in England, with little to show but parties and headaches, he returned to complete a four-year degree, later securing a role at O’Leary Walker Wines as a travelling winemaker, tasting and grading fruit. A brief harvest in Burgundy piqued his interest in ‘European winemaking culture’. Following a short European road trip with his now-wife, he returned to Australia, later relocating to the Yarra Valley. Six years later, during which he’d worked at Kazakhstan’s oldest winery, Daves’s wife, Eleanor, booked him onto a Barolo masterclass, a revelatory experience. By 2007 he’d worked a harvest at Ceretto and by 2009 returned for another. In 2012, he and Eleanor moved to Langhe permanently, and before long, he had begun producing wines under his own label, Fletcher Wines. Today, Dave is the principal head of red wine production at Ceretto as well as making seven wines of his own, produced from 12 vineyard sites and made in a renovated local train station, where he and his family live. This article tells Fletcher’s story.