The Vineyards
Asili
Barbaresco Village, Barbaresco
Perhaps the most famous of all the vineyards in Barbaresco, Asili is rightly credited as producing some of Italy’s best ever wines in the hands of Bruno Giacosa. Draped around a small hilltop village, the Asili cru hosts a number of well known names and thanks to its unique mixture of expositions, each plot represents quite a different expression of Barbaresco. Indeed, walking the full extent of Asili provides a stark contrast. From the Easternmost point to the far West this cru truly spans the gamut of mesoclimates, and all plots in Asili are certainly not created equal.
Giacosa’s portion snakes its way from the Western side with West and South-West exposition before straightening up to due-South on the Eastern side before meeting up with their holding on Rabaja. Though the village at the top of the town overlooks much of the area, the cru aggressively slopes downward in most parts, meaning vineyards benefit from outstanding exposure here.
This is a vineyard that typifies Barbaresco with the combination of Nebbiolo’s signature fine acidity and firm tannin without being overly muscular. The best wines from here show a rosey fragrance and ethereal quality matched by very few of the world’s best sites.
The Barbaresco Asili is produced in either white label (Falletto) or red label (Riserva) depending on the vintage. Asili has been vinified by Giacosa in most vintages since 1990.
For the 2024 release there is no Asili. 2020 Asili will be released as a Riserva in 2025.
The Wines:
Rabaja
Barbaresco Village, Barbaresco
Though it was acquired separately and many years after Bruno Giacosa purchased the plots on the Asili cru, the holding on Rabaja is effectively a continuation of the holding on Asili, effectively forming a continuous band that faces due south on the Asili portion, and West-South-West on the Rabaja portion. This subtle but important distinction means that while Rabaja is a cru known for producing wines of structure and austerity (which is understandable considering the vineyard forms the border between Barbaresco and Neive), Giacosa’s Rabaja ripens well even in the coolest vintages thanks to a healthy dose of afternoon sun.
That said, the hillcrest that Giacosa occupies here lies as one of Barbaresco’s highest (just over 300m ASL) meaning though the wines possess a firm structure relative to other parts of Barbaresco, they retain a freshness and don’t want for acidity.
There is a little known but fun fact about Rabaja that is historically significant to Giacosa. In the mid-1990’s, BG produced a trio of vintages from Rabaja as a white label. When he purchased the Asili vineyard in the ‘80s, it came with a sliver of vines in neighbouring Rabaja which until 1996 were used for the ‘regular’ Barbaresco. For the ‘96 vintage, Bruno Giacosa decided to vinify the tiny Rabaja portion as its own cru bottling. This happened on and off until the mid 2000’s when this part of Rabaja was reclassified as part of Asili. It wasn’t until the acquisition of 0.5ha of Rabaja in 2013 that they started to make a wine labelled under that vineyard name again.
The Barbaresco Rabaja has to date only ever been bottled as a white label (Falletto). It was produced intermittently since the first vintage in 1996, then every year since the acquisition of the new plot in 2013.
The Wines:
Falletto
Serralunga d’Alba, Barolo
An exceptional monopole, Giacosa purchased the entirety of what is now known as the Falletto MGA in 1980 from Luigi Brigante. Its own amphitheatre, Falletto sits in the far South-Eastern corner of the DOCG and abuts the border of Barolo and the national park. A patchwork of sub-plots, the most important and historical of which is Vigna Le Rocche. Mostly planted to Nebbiolo, some of the estate’s Barbera also comes from here in the lower lying parts. It consists of small vineyards of varied expositions due to its amphitheatrical configuration, but predominantly it is exposed South and South-West.
In many ways this is the quintessential Barolo drinker’s Barolo vineyard. Though the exposition might suggest this is a warm site, it is also one of Serralunga’s highest at just over 400m at the peak. Deep into the helvetian soils of Eastern Barolo, the wines from here not only carry the immense structure that gives them an inclination to long ageing, but an unmistakable balance, purity and mineral edge.
Giacosa bottles most of the Nebbiolo from here as Barolo, though has been known to either declassify or sell off fruit or wine from Falletto as dictated by the vintage (most famously in 2006 and 2010). The Barolo from the parts of Falletto that are not from Vigna Le Rocche are only ever bottled as white label Barolo.
Though BG is thought of as a pioneer in Barbaresco, his Barolos were just as important to him. When Bruno fell ill in 2012, his first request was for a picture of the Falletto vineyard to keep on his bedside table.
The Wines:
Falletto Vigna Le Rocche
A subplot of the Falletto MGA, Serralunga d’Alba, Barolo
Officially classified as a vRiv (or Vigna Rivendicata) in the same fashion as Bricco in Sarmassa or Sori Ginestra in Ginestra, this historical vineyard on the Falletto MGA has a long and storied history with Giacosa. Well before the acquisition of the total vineyard in the 80’s, red label Le Rocche Riservas are revered as some of the most renowned wines under the Bruno Giacosa label.
The first bottling of Falletto Vigna Le Rocche was in 1997. Before this the fruit from the Le Rocche part of the Falletto vineyard was blended with the Falletto Barolo. Bruno Giacosa identified the top part of the South-facing piece of Falletto as the best-of-the-best, and started to produce it as a standalone wine.
There isn’t much to differentiate this part of the vineyard from the rest of Falletto other than its ideal exposition and higher average altitude. Therefore though wines labelled Falletto Vigna Le Rocche aren’t wildly different from those in the same vintage labelled as simply Falletto, they display a noticeable increase in complexity, minerality, austerity and nuance.
For the anorak; wines made using fruit from this vineyard used to be labelled as ‘Le Rocche del Falletto’ but now must be labelled ‘Falletto Vigna Le Rocche’. The wines from here are also not to be confused with the ‘Le Rocche’ vineyard in Castiglione Falletto, from which Giacosa produced Barolo in the ‘70s and ‘80s.
The Barolo Falletto Vigna Le Rocche is produced in either white label (Falletto) or red label (Riserva) depending on the vintage.
The Wines:
Valmaggiore
Vezza d’Alba, Roero
“The Genius of Neive” as Bruno Giacosa was known, didn’t shy away from discovering other important terroirs both in Piemonte (as is the case here) and, for the Spumante, neighbouring Lombardia too. Roero was an attraction to Giacosa very early on, and the first Nebbiolo he made here (1971 Nebbiolo Valmaggiore) makes this vineyard one of the longest standing of the vineyards from which Giacosa still sources fruit.
Roero is a stunning landscape, significantly steeper than the Langhe with higher peaks to the vineyard hills and a far sandier soil profile generally. This ancient sea-bed is extremely rich in fossil deposits and almost devoid of organic matter on the surface layer, meaning vines need to dig deep into the sub-layers to sustain themselves. It’s an idyllic setting for the production of great wine, and one to which Giacosa was early to the party.
It is known for crafting spicy and lithe Nebbiolo wines while retaining many of the flavour characteristics of Nebbiolo made in Barolo or Barbaresco. As he has done for both Barolo and Barbaresco, Alessandro Masnaghetti has mapped the area in recent years and identified Valmaggiore as one of the preeminent cru of the area, however it is a vineyard that has a long and fabled history with producers both in the Roero area and the Langhe. Giaocsa long understood that Valmaggiore’s optimal Southern exposition as well as its almost impossibly steep gradient suited a Nebbiolo that possessed both elegance and longevity.
More recently, bottlings of Valmaggiore from Giacosa have been joined by other producers from the Langhe (most notably Luciano Sandrone).
The Wines: