Italy · Langhe

Marchesi di Barolo

The Piedmontese estate that claims, with good reason, to have invented dry Barolo. Abbona family, fifth generation, still fermenting in cellars Giulia Falletti built two centuries ago.

The producer

Marchesi di Barolo sits at the foot of the village of Barolo, its cellars directly below the Renaissance castle that gave the wine its name. The estate's founding claim is specific: dry Barolo was first made here, in these cellars, in the first half of the nineteenth century. Before that, Nebbiolo from the Langhe hills was sweet and lightly sparkling. The change was Giulia Falletti's decision. Born Juliette Colbert in France, she married Carlo Tancredi at Versailles in 1806, moved to Turin in 1814, looked at the parcels around the castle and concluded the raw material deserved better. She commissioned cellars built for large-cask fermentation and insulated against late-autumn cold, so that Nebbiolo harvested late could ferment dry without the temperature stopping it short. The wine that came out was what Barolo became.

The Abbona family has run the estate since 1929, when Pietro Abbona took over the cellars alongside his brother and two sisters. Fifth-generation winemaker Ernesto Abbona and his wife Anna have directed operations since 2006. Vineyards extend across approximately 430 acres in the Langhe, Roero and Monferrato, including the Cannubi cru in Barolo. The range is anchored in Nebbiolo, covering Barolo and, since the acquisition of Cascina Bruciata in 2016, Barbaresco. Vinearei, a Barbera d'Asti Superiore Nizza aged in barriques, and Zagara, a Moscato-based sparkling wine, complete the portfolio.

Known for

Barolo from Nebbiolo grown across the Langhe, including the Cannubi cru, vinified in the cellars where dry Barolo was first made in the nineteenth century

Notable facts

The story

The casks that waited

Five oak casks belonged to Marchesa Giulia and were preserved in the cellars for more than 150 years before restoration in 2002. The Abbona family arrived in 1929, ran the estate through the twentieth century, and the five casks sat in the same cellar they had always occupied, intact but idle. They went back into production, making Barolo in the same vessels. The wine they produce today is not a replica or a tribute edition. It is just Barolo, made in casks that have been in this cellar longer than anyone now living has been alive.

From the atlas

Marchesi di Barolo

At A Glance

The Producer

Marchesi di Barolo sits at the bottom of the village of Barolo, its cellars directly below the Renaissance castle that gave the wine its name. The estate's claim is unusual and specific: Barolo as a dry, still wine was first made here, in these cellars, in the first half of the nineteenth century. Before that, Nebbiolo from the Langhe hills was sweet and sparkling.

The change was Giulia Falletti's decision. Born Juliette Colbert in France, she married Carlo Tancredi at Versailles in 1806 and moved to Turin in 1814, taking an Italian name and turning her attention to the vineyards around the family castle. She saw what the hillside parcels could do with the right cellar, commissioned new buildings designed for large-cask fermentation, and insulated them against the cold of late autumn when Nebbiolo came in. The wine that came out was dry, still and serious.

The Abbona family has run the estate since 1929, when Pietro Abbona took over the cellars alongside his brother and two sisters. Fifth-generation winemaker Ernesto Abbona and his wife Anna have directed operations since 2006.

Place

Barolo is a small hilltop village in the Langhe, the ridge and valley landscape south of Alba in Piemonte. The appellation named after it covers Nebbiolo grown across eleven communes; the Cannubi hill, one of the parcels within those boundaries, sits in Marchesi di Barolo's vineyard holdings.

Beyond Barolo, the estate's vines spread across the Langhe, Roero and Monferrato, three adjacent hill zones that together define the heartland of Piedmontese viticulture. Roero sits across the Tanaro river from the Langhe; Monferrato extends further east toward the Po plain. Each zone carries its own appellation framework and its own soils, and growing across all three gives the estate a range that reaches from Barolo and Barbaresco in the south to Barbera country further north.

In 2016 the estate expanded into Barbaresco, the Nebbiolo appellation centred on the village of the same name a short drive east of Alba, through the acquisition of Cascina Bruciata, a historic property with its own vineyard holdings.

Soil And Site

Giulia Falletti identified the land around Barolo's castle as offering a particularly favourable combination of soil and microclimate for Nebbiolo. The hills of the Langhe, Roero and Monferrato are described by the estate as highly biodiverse, with the composition and aspect of each parcel shaping when the grapes are ready. The Cannubi cru in Barolo sits on the limestone-rich soils typical of the appellation's central communes.

Story

The founding decision at Marchesi di Barolo was not which grape to plant but what kind of wine to make from it. Nebbiolo had been growing in the Langhe for centuries by the time Giulia Falletti arrived. It produced a sweet, lightly fizzing wine that local drinkers knew well. Giulia looked at the same grape, the same parcels around the castle, and concluded the raw material was worth more than that.

She built cellars that could do the job properly: large casks for fermentation, walls thick enough to hold a stable temperature through November and December when Nebbiolo, harvested late, needed time to ferment dry without the cold arresting the process. The wine that came out was what Barolo became.

The Falletti line ended and the estate changed hands before Pietro Abbona arrived in 1929 with his siblings. They inherited not just the cellars and the vineyards but also the physical equipment Giulia had commissioned: five oak casks that had sat in the cellars, unused but intact, for close to a century. The Abbona family kept them.

Ernesto and Anna took over direction in 2006, the fifth generation to run an estate built around a cellar decision made two hundred years earlier. The Barbaresco acquisition in 2016 added a second Nebbiolo appellation to the portfolio, extending the range without abandoning the Langhe heartland.

Vineyards And Cellar

Harvests at Marchesi di Barolo are organised parcel by parcel. Each vineyard is picked separately, and where elevation or aspect means one block ripens ahead of another, the timing shifts to match. Across 430 acres in three hill zones, that requires careful scheduling but means each parcel comes in at the moment its fruit is ready rather than at a date fixed by convenience.

The five oak casks associated with Marchesa Giulia were restored in 2002 and returned to Barolo production. They are large-format vessels in the classic Piedmontese tradition, used for long, slow ageing that softens Nebbiolo's firm tannin while preserving its fruit and acidity. Ageing in large old oak imparts no new wood character; the tannin development comes from time and oxygen exchange through the cask staves rather than from the wood itself.

Vinearei, the estate's Barbera d'Asti Superiore Nizza, is aged in smaller barriques, a different approach suited to Barbera's softer tannin and higher natural acidity.

Wines

Barolo is the estate's anchor. Made from Nebbiolo grown across Langhe parcels including the Cannubi cru, it is the wine the cellars were built to produce. Nebbiolo in Barolo gives a pale garnet colour, high acidity, firm tannin and aromas that shift from fresh cherry and rose to tar, dried flowers and forest floor as the wine ages. The Cannubi site adds concentration and depth.

Barbaresco della Tradizione comes from Cascina Bruciata in the Barbaresco appellation. Also made from Nebbiolo, it carries aromas of dried rose petals, raspberry and tobacco, with firm, lingering tannin. Barbaresco tends to be slightly earlier-drinking than Barolo, though it shares the same grape's structural bones.

Vinearei is a Barbera d'Asti Superiore Nizza, made from one hundred percent Barbera and aged in barriques. The wine shows deep ruby colour, fruity intensity and a firm tannic presence unusual for the grape, which Barbera does not naturally produce in quantity. The Nizza designation, a sub-zone of Barbera d'Asti, requires longer ageing and indicates a more concentrated, cellar-worthy style than standard Barbera.

Zagara is made entirely from Moscato. It carries fine, abundant bubbles and a straw-yellow colour with golden hues. Low in alcohol, lightly sweet and gently sparkling, it sits at the other end of the range from the Nebbiolo wines and nods back, deliberately, to the kind of wine Nebbiolo itself once was before Giulia Falletti changed things.

In The Glass

Barolo from Marchesi di Barolo opens with dried rose, cherry and a faint earthy depth, aromas that belong to Nebbiolo grown in the Langhe's calcareous soils. In the mouth the wine is firm and dry, with high acidity and tannin that grips the palate. The Cannubi parcels add mid-palate concentration. Long ageing in large oak casks means no new wood character; the finish is long and mineral, with the tannin softening slowly over years in bottle.

Barbaresco della Tradizione is a degree lighter, with the raspberry and tobacco notes typical of Nebbiolo from the Barbaresco communes sitting alongside that same firm tannin. Vinearei is warmer and more immediately giving, the Barbera grape's natural fruit forward and the barrique ageing adding roundness and grip without the structural austerity of Nebbiolo. Zagara is a different register altogether: sweet, lightly sparkling, low-alcohol, with the floral and peach character that Moscato gives in every form it takes.

A Bottle To Understand It

Barolo is made from Nebbiolo in the Langhe. The historic cellars of Marchesi di Barolo are where Barolo was created in the first half of the nineteenth century. Five historic oak casks that belonged to Marchesa Giulia were restored in 2002 and returned to Barolo production.

Anecdote

Five oak casks belonged to Marchesa Giulia and were preserved in the cellars for more than 150 years before restoration in 2002. The Abbona family arrived in 1929, ran the estate through the twentieth century, and the five casks sat in the same cellar they had always occupied, intact but idle. They went back into production, making Barolo in the same vessels. The wine they produce today is not a replica or a tribute edition. It is just Barolo, made in casks that have been in this cellar longer than anyone now living has been alive.

Final Word

Marchesi di Barolo is one of the few wine estates whose origin story is also the origin story of its appellation. The cellars where Giulia Falletti first fermented Nebbiolo dry still stand in the village of Barolo. Ernesto and Anna Abbona run them today. The five original casks are still producing wine. That kind of physical continuity is rare in any wine region and worth a bottle.

Sources

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