Italy · Langhe

Azienda Agricola Elio Altare

Family Barolo estate in La Morra, Piemonte. Elio Altare began moving from large Slavonian barrels to French barriques in 1976, and in 1983 he cut up his father's large Slavonian botti with a chainsaw. The signature wine, Arborina, comes from La Morra parcels planted as early as 1948 and leads with fresh rose and smooth, early-accessible Nebbiolo tannin.

The producer

Elio Altare farms Nebbiolo in La Morra, the westernmost commune of the Barolo DOCG, from a cellar in the Annunziata fraction. His grandfather Giuseppe moved the family from Dogliani to La Morra in 1948, buying a five-hectare farm. Elio, born in 1950, inherited that farm and spent the next decade deciding what to do with it. What he did was choose Burgundy as his reference. After travelling to France in the 1970s and watching what smaller barrels did to Pinot Noir, he came back to Piemonte convinced that Nebbiolo could be treated the same way: shorter time on the skins, French oak barriques instead of the region's large Slavonian botti, earlier bottling to keep perfume. His father Giovanni rejected the changes, and Elio was barred from the winery until Giovanni's death in 1985.

The estate now farms approximately 10 hectares and produces around 70,000 bottles across the range. The signature wine is Barolo Arborina, a single-vineyard Nebbiolo from two La Morra parcels planted in 1948 and 1989, vinified with just three to four days of skin contact and aged 24 months in French oak barriques with 30% new wood. Barolo opens earlier and leads with fresh rose rather than tar: still Nebbiolo, still built for the table, but following the softness already in the La Morra clay rather than overriding it. Elio's eldest daughter Silvia has run operations since the early 2000s. Only 4,200 bottles of the 2018 Barolo Riserva Cerretta Vigna Bricco were made.

Known for

Barolo, single-vineyard Nebbiolo, La Morra

Notable facts

The story

The Chainsaw and the Cellar

In 1983, Elio Altare walked into the family cellar with a chainsaw and cut up his father's large Slavonian oak botti. He needed the space for French barriques. He had been building toward this moment since his Burgundy trip in the 1970s, and by 1983 he had decided that waiting for permission was not a realistic option. Giovanni, his father, saw the dismembered barrel staves and drew a clear conclusion: Elio had destroyed property, wasted wood, and rejected everything the family had built. Giovanni barred him from the winery. Elio did not go back until his father died in 1985. When he returned, the barriques were already there, waiting. The chainsaw had done its work two years before Elio was allowed to see the result.

From the atlas

Azienda Agricola Elio Altare

At A Glance

Producer: Azienda Agricola Elio Altare Village / Appellation: La Morra, Barolo DOCG, Piemonte Grape: Nebbiolo Hectares: approximately 10 Annual production: approximately 70,000 bottles Signature wine: Barolo Arborina

The Producer

Elio Altare farms Nebbiolo in La Morra, the westernmost commune of the Barolo DOCG, from a cellar at Frazione Annunziata 51 in the hills above the village. His grandfather Giuseppe moved the family from Dogliani to La Morra in 1948, buying a five-hectare farm. Elio, born in 1950, inherited that farm and spent the next decade deciding what to do with it.

What he did was choose Burgundy as his reference point. After travelling to France in the 1970s and watching what smaller barrels did to Pinot Noir, he came back to Piemonte convinced that Nebbiolo could be treated the same way: shorter time on the skins, French oak barriques instead of the region's large Slavonian botti, earlier bottling to keep perfume. Those were not neutral technical choices in Barolo at the time. His father Giovanni rejected the changes, and Elio was barred from the winery until Giovanni's death in 1985.

The estate now farms approximately 10 hectares and produces around 70,000 bottles across the range. Elio's eldest daughter Silvia has run operations since the early 2000s; his younger daughter Elena moved to Germany, where she runs a wine import company. The family and the address have been continuous since 1948. The winemaking direction has not reversed.

Place

Barolo DOCG sits in the Langhe hills of Piemonte, southeast of Alba. The zone spans five communes: La Morra, Barolo, Castiglione Falletto, Serralunga d'Alba, and Cherasco. Soil type and commune position pull Nebbiolo in different directions. Serralunga and Castiglione Falletto sit on compact Helvetian limestone and give wines with hard, slow-developing tannin. La Morra sits on younger Tortonian calcareous clay soils, softer and more fertile, and typically gives Nebbiolo with earlier aromatic lift and less grippy tannin.

Altare's parcels are in Annunziata, a fraction of La Morra known for that calcareous clay character. Shorter macerations and French oak barriques amplify the softness already in the soil rather than fighting against it. Barolo opens earlier and leads with rose and red fruit rather than tar and dried leather.

On the label, these wines carry the Barolo DOCG designation. Single-vineyard wines name the parcel: Arborina is the signature.

Soil And Site

The Arborina parcels sit within La Morra on calcareous clay of Tortonian origin, the younger geological formation that characterises the commune's softer style. The two parcels were planted in 1948 and 1989. Older vines produce smaller yields with more concentrated berry character; the 1948 planting contributes depth that the younger vines cannot yet match alone. Calcareous clay drains reasonably well but retains enough moisture in dry summers to moderate stress on Nebbiolo, which ripens late and needs the full growing season.

Story

Elio Altare took control of a family farm that had been producing wine the way most of the Langhe produced wine: grapes grown, fermented long on the skins, aged for years in large wooden barrels, bottled late. That approach extracted colour, tannin, and longevity. It also extracted youth and perfume.

The Burgundy trip changed the calculation. Elio saw that Pinot Noir in smaller barrels aged faster and smelled different: more floral, more open, more alive at five years old. He concluded that Nebbiolo, which shares Pinot Noir's tendency toward perfume when not beaten into submission by extraction, could follow the same logic.

His father Giovanni disagreed. In 1976, after returning from Burgundy, Elio began cutting down the large wooden barrels in the cellar to make room for French barriques, and Giovanni called it wasteful destruction. Elio's access was restored only after Giovanni died in 1985.

The Burgundy trip, the family rupture, and the specific decision to chase elegance in Nebbiolo at a moment when Barolo meant something harder: these are what the estate is built on. Silvia Altare's arrival in the cellar in the early 2000s extended the direction rather than redirected it.

Vineyards And Cellar

The Arborina vineyard is farmed as two separate parcels. Grapes are fermented in steel with just three to four days of skin contact, a fraction of the extended macerations that were standard in traditional Barolo, where four to six weeks was not unusual. Short maceration captures the aromatic lift in Nebbiolo's skin while stopping short of the hard phenolic tannin that extended contact pulls out.

After fermentation, the wine moves to French oak barriques for 24 months, with 30% new oak in the rotation. New barrique adds vanilla and gentle spice; the 70% used wood moderates that influence and leaves more room for rose and raspberry. The proportion is calibrated: enough new wood to add roundness, not enough to overwrite rose and raspberry with toast.

The estate produces approximately 5,200 bottles of Arborina per year, around 333 to 416 cases, making it a small parcel wine by output. Approximately 65,000 bottles across the range go to other Barolo labels, including the Barolo Riserva Cerretta Vigna Bricco.

Wines

The estate's core is Barolo, with Nebbiolo from La Morra parcels across the range. Within that range, Barolo Arborina is the single vineyard wine from two La Morra parcels planted in 1948 and 1989, with annual production of approximately 5,200 bottles.

Barolo Arborina is made from 100% Nebbiolo. It is fermented in steel with three to four days of skin contact and aged for 24 months in French oak barriques, 30% new.

The range also includes the Barolo Riserva Cerretta Vigna Bricco. Only 4,200 bottles of the 2018 wine were made.

In The Glass

Across the Altare range, Nebbiolo from La Morra under short maceration and French oak produces wines that open aromatically earlier than much of Barolo. The first thing from the glass is rose: fresh, not dried, often accompanied by red cherry, a light mineral note from the calcareous clay, and sometimes a cooler herbal or earth thread beneath. The colour is pale to medium garnet, lighter than many Barolo labels, which reflects the reduced skin contact.

In the mouth, the tannin is present but smooth. Nebbiolo always carries grip; Altare's approach pulls that grip toward a silkier texture rather than the chewy tannin of Serralunga-style wines. Acidity is firm, which is intrinsic to Nebbiolo regardless of style, and it gives the wine its carry and its ability to age despite the accessible early profile. Arborina at 10 years still has life; at five, it is already good to open. The finish is medium-long with a faint floral persistence and a clean, dry close.

A Bottle To Understand It

Barolo Arborina is the right first bottle. It comes from the two La Morra parcels that Altare has farmed longest, vinified with short maceration and 24 months in French oak, and it shows exactly what the estate's choices produce: fresh rose on the nose, smooth but genuine tannin in the mouth, firm acidity that holds the wine together, and a finish that stays floral rather than drying into bitterness. Around 5,200 bottles are made each year, so it is available without being common. Open it at eight to ten years for the most complete picture, or at five if you want to taste the floral lift at its brightest.

Anecdote

In 1983, Elio Altare walked into the family cellar with a chainsaw and cut up his father's large Slavonian oak botti. He needed the space for French barriques. He had been building toward this moment since his Burgundy trip in the 1970s, and by 1983 he had decided that waiting for permission was not a realistic option. Giovanni, his father, saw the dismembered barrel staves and drew a clear conclusion: Elio had destroyed property, wasted wood, and rejected everything the family had built. Giovanni barred him from the winery. Elio did not go back until his father died in 1985. When he returned, the barriques were already there, waiting. The chainsaw had done its work two years before Elio was allowed to see the result.

Final Word

Altare's contribution to Barolo was not to soften the grape but to change the question being asked of it. Nebbiolo grown on La Morra calcareous clay already leans toward aromatic lift and earlier tannin than its neighbours to the east. Short maceration and French oak follow that direction rather than override it. The wine that results is still Barolo, still Nebbiolo, still built for the table and capable of ageing. It just arrives at the table younger, and it leads with rose rather than iron.

Sources

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