Italy · Langhe

Contratto

Contratto is a Piedmont sparkling wine house founded in 1867, growing Pinot Noir and Chardonnay at 700 to 820 metres in Bossolasco for two Alta Langa DOCG pas dose wines aged on lees in 38-metre-deep historic cellars beneath Canelli.

The producer

Below Canelli, five thousand square metres of tunnel descend thirty-eight metres into calcareous tuff that holds a constant thirteen degrees Celsius. Contratto has been ageing sparkling wine in those cellars since 1867, and the cellars are the argument the house makes: Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grown at altitude in Bossolasco, yields capped at thirty hectolitres per hectare, fermented in stainless steel, then sent underground for thirty to thirty-six months on lees before disgorgement without dosage.

Giuseppe Contratto founded the house in 1867, initially vinifying Moscato from Monferrato. By around 1910 the house was exporting and supplying the Vatican, the Belgian royal house, and the Savoy royal family. In 1919 it produced the first vintage-dated Italian sparkling wine. The Rivetti family purchased Contratto in 2011 and rebuilt it around two organically farmed vineyards in Bossolasco, inside the Alta Langa DOCG, the mountain sparkling wine appellation of Piedmont. The two principal wines are the Millesimato, eighty percent Pinot Noir and twenty percent Chardonnay, and the Blanc de Blancs, one hundred percent Chardonnay, both disgorged dry.

Known for

Traditional-method Alta Langa DOCG sparkling wine; organic high-altitude viticulture in Bossolasco; extended lees ageing in UNESCO-listed historic cellars.

Notable facts

The story

The Cellar Beneath the City

In 2014, a committee meeting in Paris added the underground cellars of Canelli to the UNESCO World Heritage list. The designation covered the Wine Cathedrals of the Piedmont wine landscapes, a collection of historic cellars cut into the tuff beneath several Asti and Canelli houses, and Contratto's tunnels were among them. The Bocchino family had spent the years after their 1993 acquisition restoring those cellars, the internal courtyard, and the tasting room. What they restored was already old: five thousand square metres of tunnel descending to thirty-eight metres, carved before electric refrigeration existed because the tuff held thirteen degrees on its own. By the time the UNESCO decision came through, those same cellars were in active production use, holding hundreds of thousands of bottles of Alta Langa sparkling wine on their lees. The heritage status and the working winery occupied exactly the same space underground.

From the atlas

Contratto

At A Glance

Producer: Contratto Type: Traditional-method sparkling wine house Location: Canelli, Asti, Piedmont, Italy Founded: 1867 Ownership: Rivetti family (since 2011) Principal wines: Millesimato Alta Langa DOCG Pas Dose; Blanc de Blancs Alta Langa DOCG Pas Dose Farming: Organic Key grapes: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay

The Producer

Below Canelli, a town in the Asti hills of Piedmont, the ground opens into five thousand square metres of tunnel. The cellars descend to thirty-eight metres, cut through calcareous tuff that holds a constant thirteen degrees Celsius through every season. Contratto has been ageing sparkling wine in those tunnels since 1867, and the tunnels are the argument the house makes: if the wine stays down long enough, on its lees, in a cellar that never changes temperature, it becomes something different from most Italian fizz.

Giuseppe Contratto founded the house in 1867, initially vinifying Moscato from Monferrato. Within decades the range had pivoted to traditional-method sparkling wine, and by around 1910 Contratto was exporting and supplying the Vatican, the Belgian royal house, and the Savoy royal family. In 1919 the house produced what is recorded as the first vintage-dated Italian sparkling wine. The vermouth and liqueur range followed in 1920.

The Contratto family sold in 1993 to the Bocchino family, who restored the historic cellars. The Rivetti family purchased the house in 2011 and rebuilt it around two vineyards in Bossolasco, a village in the Alta Langa hills south of Alba, with organic farming and yields capped at thirty hectolitres per hectare.

Place

Alta Langa DOCG is the mountain sparkling wine appellation of Piedmont, covering traditional-method wines grown in the Langa hills south of Alba. The designation requires Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, or both, and the wines must spend at least eighteen months on lees. Contratto's two vineyards sit in Bossolasco, at seven hundred to eight hundred and twenty metres above sea level, which is high even within Alta Langa.

At that altitude the growing season runs long and cool. Grapes ripen slowly and retain the natural acidity needed for traditional method wine: the base wine needs enough acid to carry the long lees ageing without going flat, and Bossolasco delivers it. The label reads Alta Langa DOCG, which places these bottles inside the mountain tier of Piedmont sparkling wine, distinct from the Asti and Canelli DOCG wines made lower in the same hills.

Soil And Site

Both Contratto vineyards sit in Bossolasco on soils that combine calcareous and clay fractions common to the Langa hills. The Ave vineyard covers twelve hectares at seven hundred to seven hundred and fifty metres, facing south and south-west, planted to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The Moncurto vineyard covers twelve and a half hectares at seven hundred and fifty to eight hundred and twenty metres, with south, south-east, and south-west exposures. The Moncurto vines average twelve years old.

Below the vineyards, the cellar wall is built from the same calcareous tuff that runs through the Canelli subsoil. That material is why the temperature underground stays at thirteen degrees without mechanical intervention, and why extended lees ageing in bottle is logistically viable across the full production.

Story

Contratto's first century was built on export and royal patronage. The house grew from a Moscato producer into one of Italy's earliest bottlers of traditional-method sparkling wine, and by the early twentieth century it held supply contracts with the Vatican and the courts of Belgium and Savoy. The 1919 vintage release established it as the first house to put a vintage date on an Italian sparkling wine. Vermouth followed in 1920, and for decades the range included both sparkling wines and the botanicals-based liqueur line.

The Contratto family's departure in 1993 began a long interlude. The Bocchino family, who owned a distillery of the same name, took over and undertook physical restoration of the underground cellars, the courtyard, and the tasting room. The Rivetti family arrived in 2011 with a specific plan: concentrate the wine range, source the grapes from owned high-altitude vineyards, farm organically, and cut yields to thirty hectolitres per hectare across the estate. That number is roughly half what the Alta Langa DOCG rules permit and well below Piedmont averages. The consequence is small crops of fruit with concentrated natural acidity, which the cellar then ages for thirty to thirty-six months on lees before disgorgement.

Vineyards And Cellar

Contratto farms the Ave and Moncurto parcels in Bossolasco exclusively organically. The yield cap of thirty hectolitres per hectare forces tight vine work and the removal of excess fruit: fewer grapes per vine mean what remains concentrates its sugars, acidity, and flavour compounds more fully before harvest.

The cellar process for both principal sparkling wines begins in temperature-controlled stainless steel for the first fermentation, which preserves the natural acidity and fresh fruit character of the high-altitude grapes without oak influence. The wine then goes into bottle for its second fermentation and lees ageing. The Millesimato spends at least thirty months in bottle on lees. The Blanc de Blancs approaches thirty-six months. During that time, autolysis, the breakdown of spent yeast cells, releases compounds that add texture, breadth, and a toasty, brioche-edged complexity to the finished wine. Both wines are disgorged as pas dose: no dosage is added, so the residual sweetness comes only from the grapes, and the wine's acid line is unmasked.

Wines

Millesimato Alta Langa DOCG Pas Dose is composed of eighty percent Pinot Noir and twenty percent Chardonnay from the Ave vineyard at seven hundred to seven hundred and fifty metres. It ages on lees for at least thirty months. The Pinot Noir majority gives the wine a fuller body than a blanc de blancs: red fruit, some weight through the mid-palate, and a fine bead produced by the second fermentation in bottle. No dosage means the wine's freshness, any grip from the Pinot Noir skin contact at pressing, and the lees-derived texture are all present without sweetness to balance them. The wine reads dry and mineral, with the autolytic character built over thirty-plus months.

Blanc de Blancs Alta Langa DOCG Pas Dose is one hundred percent Chardonnay from the Moncurto vineyard at seven hundred and fifty to eight hundred and twenty metres, the higher of the two sites. Lees contact approaches thirty-six months. The single variety and the extra altitude produce a leaner profile than the Millesimato: citrus-forward, with a tighter bead, more pronounced yeast-derived minerality, and a longer, drier finish. The additional lees time adds breadth, while the palate remains savory and the bubbles fine and persistent.

Red Vermouth dates to 1920, made from a botanical blend including herbs and spices macerated into a base wine and aged in steel. The house describes it as soft, faceted, and clean. It represents the historical product line that ran alongside sparkling wine through the house's first century.

In The Glass

The Millesimato opens with red apple, white cherry, and a faint brioche note rising from the thirty-plus months on lees. In the mouth the bead is fine and persistent, the mid-palate has the body that Pinot Noir provides, and the acid line runs clean through to a dry, slightly saline finish. No dosage means no sweetness cushion: what you taste is the grape, the altitude, and the time in bottle.

The Blanc de Blancs is narrower on the nose at first: lemon pith, green apple, chalk dust, and the faint almond-skin note that extended lees ageing on Chardonnay often produces. The mouthfeel is leaner than the Millesimato, the bead tighter, and the finish longer and more austere. Thirty-six months of autolysis has added texture without bulk, and the Moncurto altitude keeps the acidity high enough that the wine feels electric across the palate rather than broad.

Both wines are pas dose. Neither softens its edges with residual sweetness. The acidity, the lees character, and the vineyard read directly.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with the Millesimato Alta Langa DOCG Pas Dose. It is eighty percent Pinot Noir from the Ave vineyard at seven hundred to seven hundred and fifty metres, aged for at least thirty months on lees in the Canelli cellars, then disgorged without dosage. The Pinot Noir majority gives it more body and red-fruit presence than you expect from a Piedmont sparkling wine, the lees ageing adds a brioche softness behind the acidity, and the pas dose disgorgement leaves the wine completely dry. It covers the three things Contratto does: high-altitude organic viticulture in Alta Langa, extended lees contact in those historic underground tunnels, and no sweetness correction at the end. Buy a bottle, open it cold, and pour it without food first.

Anecdote

In 2014, a committee meeting in Paris added the underground cellars of Canelli to the UNESCO World Heritage list. The designation covered the "Wine Cathedrals" of the Piedmont wine landscapes, a collection of historic cellars cut deep into the tuff beneath several Asti and Canelli houses, and Contratto's tunnels were among them. The Bocchino family had spent the years after their 1993 acquisition restoring those cellars, the internal courtyard, and the tasting room. What they restored was already old: five thousand square metres of tunnel descending to thirty-eight metres, carved before electric refrigeration existed because the tuff held thirteen degrees on its own. By the time the UNESCO decision came through, those same cellars were in active production use, holding hundreds of thousands of bottles of Alta Langa sparkling wine on their lees. The heritage status and the working winery occupied exactly the same space underground.

Final Word

Contratto makes a straightforward argument: grow Pinot Noir and Chardonnay at altitude in Bossolasco, cap the yield at thirty hectolitres per hectare, age the wine for thirty to thirty-six months in tunnels that never change temperature, and disgorge it dry. The 1867 founding and the royal supply contracts are history. What matters now is what comes out of those UNESCO-listed cellars in Canelli: two Alta Langa pas dose wines that carry the altitude, the lees time, and the absence of dosage as clearly as any traditional-method wine in Italy.

Sources

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