Italy · Langhe

Azienda Agricola Elio Grasso

Single-estate Barolo from Monforte d'Alba; two distinct vineyard soils produce two contrasting Nebbiolo styles; founded 1978 after a decisive break from banking.

The producer

Elio Grasso left a banking job in Turin in 1978, returned to the Langhe after his grandfather's death, and bottled the first wine from the family's hillside parcels that same autumn. The estate sits above Monforte d'Alba, one of the eleven Langhe communes whose hillside vineyards carry DOCG Barolo status, and covers 42 hectares in total: 18 planted to vines, 24 left as forest and meadow on the same slopes. His son Gianluca has worked alongside him since the 1990s. Annual output across the full range runs to roughly 90,000 bottles.

The estate farms two named Barolo sub-zones: Gavarini Chiniera, on sandy limestone soils at 350 to 400 metres, and Ginestra Casa Matè, on chalk and clay a few kilometres across the ridge. Both Barolos age two years in large Slavonian oak botti. The Gavarini produces a more lifted, mineral Nebbiolo; the Ginestra runs fuller and more immediately aromatic. A Langhe Nebbiolo from the same Gavarini slopes, first made in 1987, gives the hillside character at an earlier drinking window.

Known for

Barolo from Gavarini Chiniera (sandy limestone, lifted and mineral) and Ginestra Casa Matè (chalk and clay, floral and full), both aged in large Slavonian oak botti.

Notable facts

The story

The Bank, the Hillside, and the First Harvest

Elio Grasso was sitting at a desk in a Turin bank in 1978 when the news came that his grandfather had died. The old man had left him the family cascina and the vineyard parcels he had farmed on the Gavarini and Ginestra hillsides above Monforte d'Alba. Grasso walked out of the bank, went back to the Langhe, and in the autumn of that year harvested and bottled the first wine under his own name. He had no winemaking training and no winery infrastructure: only the land, the Nebbiolo on the hillside, and the decision to bottle rather than sell fruit to the houses in Alba who were buying from small growers across the commune. The underground cellar came twenty-six years later, tunnelled into the hillside in 2004, and Gianluca had joined the estate by then. The estate as it exists today begins with that autumn in 1978 and a man who chose vines over a desk.

From the atlas

Azienda Agricola Elio Grasso

At A Glance

The Producer

Elio Grasso left a banking job in Turin in 1978. His grandfather had just died, leaving him a cascina and vineyard parcels on two hillsides above Monforte d'Alba: Gavarini and Ginestra. He went back to the Langhe and bottled the first wine that year. The estate has been estate-bottling ever since.

Monforte d'Alba is one of the eleven communes whose hillside vineyards carry DOCG Barolo status, and Elio Grasso farms two of its named sub-zones. His son Gianluca has worked alongside him since the 1990s. The family produces Barolo from three single-vineyard parcels, a Langhe Nebbiolo that first appeared in 1987, and Barbera d'Alba and Dolcetto d'Alba to complete the range. Annual output across all wines sits at roughly 90,000 bottles.

The estate covers 42 hectares in total, of which 18 are planted to vines and 24 are forest and meadow on the same hillsides. That proportion is deliberate: the landscape around the vines is part of what shapes the microclimate.

Place

Monforte d'Alba sits in the southern Langhe, where the hills run steeper and the soils shift more noticeably from one slope to the next than in the northern communes around La Morra and Barolo village. The DOCG boundary requires Nebbiolo grown in defined hillside plots, and the two sub-zones Grasso farms, Gavarini and Ginestra, face south and sit between 350 and 400 metres.

Both names appear on the label as MGA designations, the Piemontese system for single-vineyard Barolo. Gavarini Chiniera and Ginestra Casa Matè are two parcels within that system, and their labels signal not just a vineyard address but a specific soil register and, in the glass, a distinct character. Gavarini carries sandy limestone. Ginestra runs to chalk and clay. The Langhe Nebbiolo Gavarini, classified at the DOC level below Barolo, comes from the same south-facing Gavarini slopes at 350 to 380 metres and shares the calcareous clay soils of the older vineyard blocks.

Soil And Site

Gavarini Chiniera sits on sandy limestone soils that drain quickly and warm early in the season, pulling Nebbiolo toward finer tannin and a more lifted, mineral expression. The 2021 vintage shows what the site tends to produce: red cherry, dried flowers, iron, and chalk aromatics with minty herb running through the finish.

Ginestra Casa Matè, a few kilometres across the ridge, has chalk and clay. The clay holds moisture longer and slows the pace of ripening, producing a more aromatic, fuller-bodied Nebbiolo from the outset. The 2021 opens with rose, violet, licorice, and crushed flowers, with more flesh on the mid-palate than the Chiniera at the same stage of ageing.

The Rüncot parcel is a third Barolo from a separate site on the estate. Its soils and exact position are not fully documented in public sources; the wine exists and the name appears on the estate label.

Story

Elio Grasso came back to Monforte d'Alba with no winemaking background, only the land his grandfather had farmed. In 1978, when most small Langhe growers were still selling their grapes or bulk wine to the large négociant houses in Alba, he chose to bottle under his own name from the first vintage. That decision, and the hillside parcels he inherited, set the course for everything the estate produces today.

Gianluca joined the estate in the 1990s and has shaped its direction since. In 2004 the family cut an underground cellar out of the hillside at the property, providing natural temperature and humidity for ageing. It was a practical decision, but also a signal: the Grassos were committing to long-term production on this specific hill, in a cellar literally built into it.

The estate has stayed small. Ninety thousand bottles a year from 18 hectares is not a large operation for Piemonte, and the three Barolo parcels remain the centre of the range. The Langhe Nebbiolo, introduced in 1987, was added to make the estate's Gavarini terroir accessible at a lower price point and shorter ageing window.

Vineyards And Cellar

The Langhe Nebbiolo Gavarini comes from vines averaging 40 years old, harvested by hand and trained on Guyot. Older vines on calcareous clay soils concentrate the Nebbiolo character without the weight of Barolo ageing, producing a wine that drinks earlier and shows the Gavarini address clearly.

Both standard Barolos spend two years in large Slavonian oak botti. The botti format, traditional throughout the Langhe, allows slow oxygen exchange without heavy oak flavour. The tannin integrates over the ageing period, and the fruit retains its character from the individual soil profiles. Ageing in large format rather than small barrique keeps the Gavarini and Ginestra characters distinct rather than merging them under new oak. The 2004 underground cellar maintains the even temperature and humidity that extended botti ageing requires.

Wines

The Barolo Gavarini Chiniera is the lighter-framed of the two main Barolos. Sandy limestone gives it a more mineral, aerially lifted quality: the tannin is firm but not heavy, and the cherry and dried-flower aromatics sit above a chalky, herb-threaded finish. It needs time in bottle before the tannin fully opens.

The Barolo Ginestra Casa Matè is more immediately aromatic and fuller in the mouth. Rose, violet, licorice, and crushed flowers lead, and the chalk-and-clay soil produces denser tannin and more mid-palate weight than the Chiniera. The two bottles are genuinely different in character and together show what the variation in Monforte's soils produces in Nebbiolo.

The Barolo Rüncot exists as a third single-vineyard label. Its production is small and its site details are less fully documented.

The Langhe Nebbiolo Gavarini is a DOC wine made from the same Gavarini hillside plots but classified below Barolo. It reaches the market earlier, ages for a shorter period, and carries the same south-facing calcareous clay character without the extended oak ageing of the DOCG wines. Barbera d'Alba and Dolcetto d'Alba round out the range as everyday drinking wines from the estate.

In The Glass

Nebbiolo from Monforte d'Alba is not an easy grape at first: it opens with firm, grippy tannin and high acidity before the fruit comes through. At Elio Grasso, the two soil profiles give the wines a clear north-south argument in miniature.

The Gavarini Chiniera lifts from the glass with red cherry and dried flowers, then settles into iron and chalk on the mid-palate. The acidity is bright, the tannin fine-grained from the sandy limestone, and the finish trails minty herb and a flinty mineral note. With four to six years of bottle age, the tannin softens and the secondary complexity of dried rose petal and graphite emerges.

The Ginestra Casa Matè reads differently from the first pour: rose and violet come first, followed by licorice and a florality that is more opulent than the Chiniera. The clay in the soil adds weight and length to the mid-palate, and the tannin is broader and takes longer to settle. Both wines have the acidity to age for fifteen or more years from strong vintages.

The Langhe Nebbiolo Gavarini shows the same hillside character in a lighter register: Nebbiolo's signature cherry, rose, and firm acid line, but without the extraction or oak time of Barolo, making it approachable within two to four years of vintage.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with the Langhe Nebbiolo Gavarini. It comes from the same south-facing Gavarini slopes as the Barolo above it, grown on calcareous clay soils from vines averaging 40 years old and harvested by hand. It is not a lesser wine scaled back from the Barolo; it is a DOC Nebbiolo made to drink on a shorter timeline, and it shows exactly what the Gavarini hillside produces before the weight of extended oak ageing enters the picture. In the glass it gives Nebbiolo's characteristic rose, cherry, and firm acid line with a modest tannin grip that softens within two to three years of vintage. The price is lower, the waiting shorter, and the address is the same hillside Elio Grasso returned to in 1978.

Anecdote

Elio Grasso was sitting at a desk in a Turin bank in 1978 when the news came that his grandfather had died. The old man had left him the family cascina and the vineyard parcels he had farmed on the Gavarini and Ginestra hillsides above Monforte d'Alba. Grasso walked out of the bank, went back to the Langhe, and in the autumn of that year harvested and bottled the first wine under his own name. He had no winemaking training and no winery infrastructure to speak of: only the land, the Nebbiolo on the hillside, and the decision to bottle rather than sell to the houses in Alba who were buying fruit from small growers throughout the commune. The underground cellar came twenty-six years later, tunnelled into the hillside in 2004, and Gianluca had joined the estate by then. But the estate as it exists today begins with that autumn in 1978 and a man who chose vines over a desk.

Final Word

Elio Grasso makes a legible argument in two Barolo bottles: sandy limestone on Gavarini, chalk and clay on Ginestra, and the same grape handled the same way in the cellar. The Langhe Nebbiolo gives you the hillside without the waiting. The underground cellar and the 40-year-old vines on Gavarini are the kind of commitments that only make sense if you plan to be here for a long time. Elio Grasso clearly did.

Sources

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