Forty families care for their own tiny plots in this co-op, founded in 1908, which total 15 hectares of vines rooted in the zone’s pure volcanic soils. Descending into the cantina’s historic cellar with its cement tanks and botti tucked beneath the centuries-old city center of Gattinara is like traveling back in time.
This storied cooperative has offered families from Gattinara a steady path to continued independence and stewardship of the land, producing approximately 2,000 cases of wine annually. The resulting wines display a simple elegance and purity as well as a palpable connection to over 100 years of production.
The Riserva is the co-ops flagship bottling, which they do not make each year — only in years they deem the wine to be worthy. Aged in barrel before release, this is Nebbiolo in its most elegant attire.
Heady aromas of dried roses, oregano, smoked meat, graphite and warm volcanic soil.
Before Barolo and Barbaresco were on the map, Gattinara was fetching higher prices than some of the finest wines of the world. Located north of Barolo in what we now call the "Alto-Piedmont," the region Gattinara's heyday was in the 1800s, and it is really just within the past two decades that wine drinkers around the globe have taken notice.
Lucky for us, even the Riservas from Gattinara are usually half the price of their Barolo and Barbaresco cousins down south. Pair with our truffle potato chips.
Fun fact: Thomas Jefferson loved Gattinara :)
