From the atlas
Azienda Agricola Mario Gagliasso
At A Glance
- Location: La Morra, Barolo DOCG, Piemonte
- Grapes: Nebbiolo, Barbera, Dolcetto, Chardonnay
- Key wines: Barolo Rocche dell'Annunziata, Barolo Torriglione, Barolo Riserva
- Size: 15 hectares across La Morra, Monforte d'Alba, Novello, Cherasco
- Production: approximately 5,000 cases annually
- Farming: certified integrated and sustainable agriculture (Green Experience protocol)
The Producer
In 1971, the Gagliasso family bottled their first Barolo. The company had existed for a decade already, founded by Michele Gagliasso in the 1960s as a collective agricultural firm under the name Azienda Agricola Gagliasso Michele e Figli, growing grapes and selling them on. The decision to bottle under the family name was the first step toward a different kind of estate.
Mario Gagliasso took ownership and direction in the 1980s, making Barolo the clear centre of the operation. Today his son Luca works as oenologist and manages exports; his daughter Nicoletta is the winemaker. The estate sits in La Morra, the westernmost of Barolo's major communes, with vineyards spread across four municipalities that give the range its breadth.
Place
La Morra is Barolo's most aromatic commune. Its Nebbiolo tends toward lifted red fruit, violet, and tar, with tannins that are firm but rounder at youth than those from the sandstone and clay of Serralunga d'Alba to the east. The Barolo DOCG covers eleven communes; La Morra accounts for a large share of total hectares and is the heart of what growers call the western, or Tortonian, soils: compacted Helvetian marine sediment laid down over millions of years, giving wines more immediate perfume and softer grip.
Gagliasso's vineyards extend to Monforte d'Alba, Novello, and Cherasco as well. Monforte brings a harder, more austere character to Nebbiolo; Novello sits at higher elevation with cooler nights. The spread across four communes is less common for a 15-hectare estate and gives the producer access to distinct ripeness and tannin profiles within a single range.
The estate's primary Barolo address is the Rocche dell'Annunziata cru in La Morra, one of the hill's most important single-vineyard sites.
Soil And Site
Rocche dell'Annunziata covers approximately 30 hectares on the slopes above La Morra. The soils shift across elevation: sandier at the lower part of the slope, with more loam higher up. The gradient matters for drainage and vine stress. Nebbiolo on the sandier lower sections drains quickly, concentrating sugars and aromatic compounds; the heavier loam above retains moisture longer and tends toward slightly later ripening. Gagliasso's parcels sit within this cru.
The second La Morra cru, Torriglione, lends its name to both a Barolo bottling and the estate's agriturismo, anchoring the hospitality side of the property to the same slope that produces the wine.
Story
Michele Gagliasso built a working agricultural company in the 1960s, the kind common across the Langhe before Barolo's international reputation lifted prices and ambitions. The grapes grew, the wine was made, and the family sold it on in bulk. That changed in 1971, when the family put their first Barolo in bottle under their own name. The choice was deliberate: estate bottling was not a given for a small Langhe producer, and doing it in 1971 put the Gagliasso name on record before the Barolo boom of the 1980s.
When Mario took over in that decade, the shift was about focus. Barolo became the estate's purpose rather than one crop among several. He kept the traditional Piemontese grape lineup but pushed the cellar toward more considered practices: hand harvesting, hand pumping during fermentation, temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks. The aging format was a deliberate modern choice: approximately 250 French oak barriques alongside six large barrels, a combination that integrates tannin more quickly than large-format casks alone and gives the wines more approachability at release.
In 2006 Mario opened Agriturismo Il Torriglione on the estate, adding a restaurant and farmhouse rooms to the winery. The name came from the vineyard. The logic was that the wine and the place were already one thing; the agriturismo made that visible to anyone who came to stay.
Luca and Nicoletta now manage the operation. Luca handles oenology and the export side; Nicoletta runs the winemaking. The estate produces around 5,000 cases a year, with Barolo at 40 percent of total output.
Vineyards And Cellar
The 15 hectares divide across La Morra, Monforte d'Alba, Novello, and Cherasco, with the La Morra crus at the top of the hierarchy. Farming follows the Green Experience certified integrated and sustainable agriculture protocol: minimal chemical inputs, hand harvest, and hand pumping and punchdown during fermentation. No mechanical harvest.
Fermentation takes place in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks with medium to long maceration. Maceration length in stainless steel extracts colour and tannin from Nebbiolo's thick skins; controlling temperature keeps fermentation clean and preserves aromatic lift. After fermentation, the wine moves to oak. The approximately 250 French oak barriques are a modern format by Barolo standards, where large Slavonian oak casks of 25 to 50 hectolitres were once universal. The six large barrels in the cellar run alongside the barriques, softening the oak imprint. The combination gives Gagliasso's Barolo more immediate fruit expression than purely large-format aging would allow, while maintaining the tannins Nebbiolo requires to age.
Barolo Riserva appears only in exceptional vintage years, with no fixed release schedule.
Wines
Barolo makes up 40 percent of production and anchors everything else. The two named La Morra crus sit at the top of the range.
Barolo Rocche dell'Annunziata is drawn from parcels within the historic 30-hectare cru. Nebbiolo on this slope gives wines with lifted aromatics, dried rose, tar, and a mid-palate of dark cherry fruit, with firm tannin that fills out across the width of the mouth rather than gripping at the front. The acidity is high, as it always is in Nebbiolo, and it runs clean through the finish.
Barolo Torriglione comes from the second La Morra cru. Concrete sensory data for Torriglione specifically is limited, but La Morra character is the shared foundation: aromatic, relatively accessible tannin, and the same firm acid line.
Barbera d'Alba is 30 percent of output, Dolcetto d'Alba 20 percent, and Chardonnay 10 percent. The Barbera and Dolcetto are traditional Piemontese accompaniments to the Barolo range; both are grown on the estate but specific vineyard sources and élevage details for these three wines are not confirmed. The Chardonnay is unusual for a Barolo estate and appears to draw from one of the non-La Morra communes.
The Barolo Riserva, produced only in exceptional years, extends maceration and aging time, deepening the tannic architecture and adding years to the drinking window.
In The Glass
Nebbiolo from La Morra opens with dried violet, rose petal, and tar, with a background note of iron or earth that comes forward as the wine sits. The fruit is dark cherry and sour plum, concentrated rather than jammy, and the acidity arrives early in the mid-palate, lifting the fruit and running through to a finish that stays firm and clean. Tannins are broad and present but not jagged.
The French oak barriques leave a mark at release: a faint vanilla softness behind the fruit, tighter grain than large Slavonian cask would give. After a few years in bottle, the oak integrates and the wine's La Morra character comes forward. The finish lengthens with age, and the acid line that feels brisk at release becomes the tannins that hold the wine together at ten or fifteen years.
Across the range, the Barbera will be fuller and more forward than the Barolo, with naturally higher acidity and lower tannin. The Dolcetto is darker, softer, and meant for early drinking. The Riserva, when it appears, adds density and a longer tanic reach compared to the regular cru bottlings.
A Bottle To Understand It
Barolo Rocche dell'Annunziata is the right starting point. It is the estate's most historically grounded wine, drawn from a named cru that predates most Barolo producers' founding documents. The wine is Nebbiolo fermented in stainless steel, aged in French oak barriques, and sourced from La Morra's softer-soiled western slopes. In the glass it offers dried rose, tar, sour cherry, and a firm acid line, with broad tannin that rewards two to three years of patience after release. The oak is present but not dominant. Start here to understand what La Morra Nebbiolo gives and what the Gagliasso cellar does with it.
Anecdote
The family company existed for nearly ten years before anyone put its name on a bottle. Michele Gagliasso had built a working agricultural operation in the Langhe in the 1960s, growing grapes alongside other crops and selling the wine in bulk, as most small producers did. In 1971, the family made a different decision: they would bottle a Barolo under the Gagliasso name. The label went on; the bottles went out. A decade later, when Mario took over and redirected the estate around Barolo as its central purpose, the 1971 vintage was already there in the cellar's memory. The family had put their name on Barolo before the boom, before the Langhe became an international destination, when an estate bottling was a choice made on conviction rather than market logic. Luca and Nicoletta are the third generation farming that same decision.
Final Word
Gagliasso is a La Morra producer with a clear address: Rocche dell'Annunziata is the estate's best argument, a historic cru with Nebbiolo that shows the commune's aromatic generosity. The cellar applies French oak barriques to a grape that needs time and acid to resolve, producing Barolo that is approachable sooner than tradition alone would allow. With Luca and Nicoletta now running oenology and winemaking, the family line from Michele's 1960s cooperative to a focused Barolo estate is three generations long and still on the same hill.
Sources
- https://www.gagliassovini.it/en/company-gagliasso.html
- https://www.gagliassovini.it/en/winery-gagliasso.html
- https://www.kysela.com/producers/azienda-agricola-gagliasso.html
- https://www.trediberri.com/en/rocche-dellannunziata/