Bruno Giacosa, New Releases 2010

“I can think of no Italian producer whose wines have given me as much pleasure as the Barbarescos and Barolos from Bruno Giacosa. He is one of a handful of producers whose wines I will purchase without tasting them first...”  Robert Parker ‘The Wine Advocate’ Issue 144

Profile 

The Estate

Viticulture and Vinification

Wines

New Release Vintage Report

 

Giacosa The New Release - buy the wines here

 

Profile

Giacosa’s vines are located in prime sites about 400 metres above sea level and total 23 hectares (ha). The 5.5ha of Barbaresco Asili and 14.5ha of Barolo Falletto di Serralunga d’Alba are perfectly situated with optimum exposure and ideal soil for producing great Barbaresco and Barolo. The Falletto vineyard is truly iconic in the region; its amphitheatre like location producing a very protective, low-cropping microclimate. More recently, acquisition in La Morra has added to the holdings. In addition to the family holdings, Giacosa manages a number of vineyards owned by others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Estate

Giacosa’s vines are located in prime sites about 400 metres above sea level and total 23 hectares (ha). The 5.5ha of Barbaresco Asili and 14.5ha of Barolo Falletto di Serralunga d’Alba are perfectly situated with optimum exposure and ideal soil for producing great Barbaresco and Barolo. The Falletto vineyard is truly iconic in the region; its amphitheatre like location producing a very protective, low-cropping microclimate. More recently, acquisition in La Morra has added to the holdings. In addition to the family holdings, Giacosa manages a number of vineyards owned by others.

 

Viticulture and Vinification

The over-riding ambition of both father and daughter is to achieve the highest quality possible. To this end, they only ever put the Giacosa name to wines in which they have complete confidence. Bruno’s strictness in this regard comes at a heavy financial cost – in 1991, 1992 and 1994 he declassified all his single-vineyard Barolos and Barbarescos, and repeated this in 2002 and, to hotly debated discussion on blogs around the world, in 2006. With the brilliant assistance of winemaker Giorgio Lavagna, primary importance is of course attached to the quality of the fruit, but Bruno regards an immaculate, well ordered winery and cellar as essential to the production of great wine. He aims to create wines rich in flavour, with fine supporting tannins but above all else lilting elegance. Bruno combines a strict adherence to traditional methods with only the fewest concessions to modern technology. The results are remarkable.

 

Wines

The range of wines here is large, made more complicated by Bruno’s insistence that each fruit and terroir combination should be allowed to express itself individually, and that the fruit from managed vineyards must be vinified and bottled separately. The majority of the wines are therefore single vineyard. Moreover, in the very greatest years, some of the wines are bottled with a red label signifying “Riserva” to differentiate their treatment from those bottled under a white label. Five different grape varieties are grown: Nebbiolo, Barbera, Dolcetto, Arneis and Pinot Noir. From these, two selections are made: Casa Vinicola Bruno Giacosa and Azienda Agricola Falletto di Bruno Giacosa.

Casa Vinicola Bruno Giacosa (with a castle on the label) is used for fruit sourced from managed vineyards. From this range armit buys Spumante, Roero Arneis, Nebbiolo d’Alba, Barbera d’Alba, Dolcetto d’Alba and the individual Barbaresco “Santo Stefano”.


Azienda Agricola Falletto di Bruno Giacosa (the label pictures the Falletto house and hill) is for wines made from estate owned vineyards.While this range includes Dolcetto and Barabera d’Alba, it is used for the celebrated Barbaresco and Barolo (including the great Le Roche del Falletto) which earned the Giacosa estate its global iconic standing.