Italy · Langhe

Fletcher Wines

Australian winemaker David Fletcher makes ten Nebbiolo-led wines from twelve Langhe and Roero vineyards, working from a converted railway station at the centre of Barbaresco village. Production is capped at 30,000 bottles a year.

The producer

David Fletcher is Australian, trained in enology at Adelaide University, and came to Piemonte via Burgundy and a formative stretch at Ceretto, where he eventually led red-wine production across Barolo and Barbaresco. When he left to make his own wines, he and his wife Eleanor bought the derelict railway station in the centre of Barbaresco village, restored it into a family home and cantina, and set the address on every label he has produced since.

The range runs to ten wines from twelve vineyard sites across Barbaresco, Alba and the Roero, all farmed organically or in conversion. Fermentation is spontaneous. Extraction is light, pigeage by hand every other day. Sulfites enter after malolactic fermentation, sparingly. Maturation happens in 300-litre barrels averaging ten years of age, which contribute no new oak and allow Nebbiolo's fruit, acidity and tannin to resolve on their own terms. Production is capped at 30,000 bottles a year, allocated to 21 countries.

Known for

Single-vineyard Barbaresco from Faset and Ronchi, organically farmed or in conversion, aged in old large-format barrels without new oak.

Notable facts

The story

The Station

Barbaresco's railway station had been sitting empty for years by the time David and Eleanor Fletcher found it. The village is small, the station was surplus, and the building had the specific problem of old public infrastructure: too large for a private house, too historic to demolish, too expensive for most buyers to touch. Fletcher saw a winery with a home inside it. He and Eleanor bought the building, worked through the restoration, and moved in. Their cantina occupies the old waiting rooms and freight areas; their kitchen and bedrooms are above. Every bottle Fletcher produces lists the address: the same station, the same village, the same building that once loaded passengers for Asti. The wines ship to 21 countries from a place that once shipped people to the next town.

From the atlas

Fletcher Wines

At A Glance

The Producer

David Fletcher is Australian. He lives in Barbaresco, and he makes wine in the village's old railway station. Both facts matter more than they sound: the station is not a renovation project but a functioning family home and cantina, the address on every label, and the physical centre of a winery whose wines reach 21 countries in runs of no more than 30,000 bottles a year.

Fletcher trained in enology at Adelaide University and arrived in Burgundy first. Nebbiolo found him in 2006, and by 2009 he was at Ceretto in Barolo and Barbaresco as an intern, eventually leading their red-wine production. When he left to make his own wines, he took the knowledge of those appellations and applied it from twelve vineyard sites across Barbaresco, Alba and the Roero, farming organically and staying close to the grape. The range now runs to ten wines, and the logic holding it together is consistent: Nebbiolo, old barrels, as little interference as the vintage allows.

Place

Barbaresco is a DOCG appellation in the southern part of Piemonte's Langhe hills, built entirely around Nebbiolo. The village sits on the right bank of the Tanaro river, and its vineyards face south and southeast across calcareous clay soils that push Nebbiolo toward fragrance and firm, drying tannin rather than weight. The appellation produces wines that tend to open earlier than Barolo, though single-vineyard examples from named sites can age for two decades.

The Piemontese classification identifies individual vineyard parcels within Barbaresco as MGAs, Menzione Geografica Aggiuntiva. These are named single vineyards that may appear on the label when fruit comes exclusively from that parcel and the wine meets the additional ageing requirements. Fletcher produces single-vineyard Barbaresco from two MGAs: Faset and Ronchi. Below the Barbaresco and Barolo designations sits the Langhe DOC, a broader regional appellation that covers wines from Nebbiolo grown outside the classified village zones, including fruit from Alba and the Roero.

The Roero sits across the Tanaro from Barbaresco, on sandier soils, and the fruit it contributes to Fletcher's Langhe Nebbiolo gives that wine a lighter frame and earlier approachability than the village-level bottles.

Soil And Site

The Faset MGA sits on calcareous clay with good south-facing exposure, and produces Nebbiolo with notable aromatic lift and high, firm acidity. Ronchi is another named site within the Barbaresco commune, and Fletcher monitored it across several harvests before deciding the parcel had enough individual character to bottle separately. The remaining Barbaresco parcels, drawn from multiple village sites, contribute to the blended Barbaresco rather than appearing under a vineyard name.

Farming across all twelve sites is either certified organic or undergoing conversion, with biodynamic practices applied on some parcels. For the leased vineyards worked by their owners rather than by Fletcher directly, he encourages a move toward organic methods. The shared principle across owned, leased and third-party parcels is the same: no synthetic inputs, and as little disruption to the vine and soil as the season permits.

Story

Fletcher arrived in Piemonte not as a tourist who fell into winemaking but as a trained enologist who had already spent time in Burgundy and knew what he was looking for when Nebbiolo stopped him. The years at Ceretto gave him a working knowledge of Barolo and Barbaresco from the inside, learning which parcels behaved differently across vintages and how long the grape needed to resolve in barrel before it was ready. When he decided to make his own wines, the starting point was two appellations: Barolo and Barbaresco. The range grew from that core outward, adding sites in Alba and the Roero as parcels became available and Fletcher satisfied himself that each one was worth a separate bottling.

The decision to buy the railway station rather than a conventional cantina or farmhouse is less eccentric than it first appears. The building sits at the physical centre of Barbaresco village, close to the vineyards that produce the appellation's named-site wines, and its stone construction gives it a consistent cellar temperature. David and his wife Eleanor restored it into a working home and winery, and the address, Barbaresco's former station, appears in every profile of the estate because there is nowhere else it could come from.

Vineyards And Cellar

Fermentation for the Nebbiolo wines is spontaneous: no added yeasts, no temperature manipulation beyond what the cellar provides naturally. Extraction is deliberate and light. Fletcher uses pigeage by hand every other day rather than pumping over, which limits the extraction of harsh tannin while still pulling colour and aromatic compounds from the skins. The wines are pressed only after primary fermentation has finished and the sugars have fermented dry, not partway through, which means the grape's fruit character has time to settle before the press fraction joins the free-run.

Sulfites enter the wines after malolactic fermentation has completed, not before, and they are used sparingly. Maturation takes place in 300-litre barrels averaging ten years of age. At that age, the barrels contribute no new oak flavour; they function as a breathing vessel, allowing slow micro-oxygenation without introducing tannin or vanilla character from fresh wood. The Nebbiolo resolves its own tannin in these conditions, and the fruit, acidity and floral character that define the grape's best bottles come through without oak overlay.

Wines

The range begins with the Langhe Nebbiolo, a broader DOC wine drawing on fruit from younger vines and lighter-structured parcels across Barbaresco, Alba and the Roero. It is vinified with the same spontaneous fermentation and old-barrel ageing as the village wines, but the fruit sources give it a more open, earlier-drinking character with lighter tannin and a fresher red-fruit profile. It is the range's introduction to Fletcher's cellar approach without the weight of a full village designation behind it.

Above that sits the blended Barbaresco, assembled from multiple parcels within the Barbaresco commune. It carries more Nebbiolo tannin and greater aromatic depth than the Langhe wine, with dried rose and dark cherry on the nose and a firmer mid-palate that benefits from two or three years of bottle age. The single-vineyard Faset Barbaresco narrows the picture to one MGA: lifted, high-acid Nebbiolo with a taut aromatic profile that tends toward violets and red cherry, firming up on the finish. Ronchi, bottled separately after Fletcher spent several vintages watching the parcel contribute reliably individual fruit to the blend, shows darker fruit and rounder tannin than Faset, with better-integrated acidity and more flesh through the mid-palate. The Barolo rounds out the top of the range, coming from Barolo DOCG fruit and requiring the longest time in bottle before it opens.

In The Glass

The Langhe Nebbiolo opens with red cherry and a faint dried herb note, the acidity forward on the palate, the tannin present but light enough that it does not grip. It is the range's clearest argument that Fletcher's cellar method works at every level: no new oak, nothing sweetening or smoothing, just the grape in a lighter key.

The blended Barbaresco rises from the glass with dried rose and dark cherry, the acidity firmer and the tannin more pronounced than in the regional wine. Time in the bottle brings the two into balance; at four or five years from harvest, the mid-palate fills out and the finish extends. The Faset single-vineyard wine is more aromatic and more tightly wound, its violet and red-cherry character precise and high-toned, the finish long and drying. The Ronchi sits darker and fuller, the tannin more cushioned, the fruit riper at the same picking date; the two single-vineyard wines show how much the MGA distinction matters in Barbaresco even across neighbouring parcels.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with the blended Barbaresco. It brings together multiple village parcels across a single appellation, fermented spontaneously and aged in old barrels, and it shows what Fletcher does with Nebbiolo at full village concentration without requiring the patience of a single-vineyard bottle. On the nose: dried rose, dark cherry, a faint iron note. On the palate: firm Nebbiolo tannin, mouth-watering acidity, a mid-palate that opens with two or three years of age. No new oak. No sweetness. Open it at four years from harvest and it will be starting to say what it is.

Anecdote

Barbaresco's railway station had been sitting empty for years by the time David and Eleanor Fletcher found it. The village is small, the station was surplus, and the building had the specific problem of old public infrastructure: too large for a private house, too historic to demolish, too expensive for most buyers to touch. Fletcher saw a winery with a home inside it. He and Eleanor bought the building, worked through the restoration, and moved in. Their cantina occupies the old waiting rooms and freight areas; their kitchen and bedrooms are above. Every bottle Fletcher produces lists the address: the same station, the same village, the same building that once loaded passengers for Asti. The wines ship to 21 countries from a place that once shipped people to the next town.

Final Word

Fletcher Wines is a small, focused producer making Nebbiolo in one of Italy's most demanding appellations with a philosophy that changes very little from bottle to bottle: old barrels, spontaneous fermentation, organic farming, and no interference the grape does not need. The single-vineyard Barbaresco wines require time. The blended Barbaresco and the Langhe Nebbiolo do not. The address on the label is a converted railway station in the middle of the village, and the winemaker is Australian. Both details survive every tasting.

Sources

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