Friday 7 September 2012

Arborina in a straight Barolo?

Posted by Julian Campbell, Buyer

We've long championed Marco Marengo's beautifully Burgundian set of Barolos. Year in year out they offer style, grace and poise, serving to highlight all that is great about La Morra through their elegance, clarity of fruit and super refined tannic structures. They also remain particularly good value. Even more so given the recent revelation...

It is no secret that Elio Altare's Brunate fruit comes from Marco Marengo's vines. The arrangement has gone on for years, fruit being separated by hand in the vineyard before making its way to the individual estates. When probing this set up further at our Italian En Primeur tasting last Tuesday, something rather interesting came to light. No money changes hands for the fruit. Rather a portion of the harvest from Elio Altare's Arborina vineyard is donated as payment. Never being enough to bottle as Arborina outright, we wondered where the fruit went. “Oh, it just goes into the straight Barolo” was the answer. No wonder it’s so good...