From the atlas
Pico Maccario
At A Glance
Producer: Pico Maccario Country: Italy Region: Piemonte Base: Mombaruzzo, province of Asti Grapes: Barbera, Nebbiolo, Moscato d'Asti, Cortese, Viognier, Sauvignon Blanc Key appellations: Barolo, Barbaresco, Nizza, Barbera d'Asti, Gavi, Moscato d'Asti Founded: 1997
The Producer
Pico Maccario is a Piemontese estate assembled from scratch. In 1997, brothers Pico and Vitaliano Maccario purchased 70 hectares of vineyards in Mombaruzzo, a hillside village in the province of Asti, and built outward from there. The home ground is Monferrato, where clay-rich soils and the Barbera grape drive the main range. The Langhe expansion came later: Nebbiolo vineyards in Neive, Serralunga d'Alba, and the Barolo commune, including a parcel in Cannubi.
The estate now covers roughly 100 hectares across both territories. In July 2025, the Veronesi family's Oniwines project acquired the producer. The existing agronomic and oenological team was kept in place and the brand continues under the Pico Maccario name.
Place
Mombaruzzo sits in the Monferrato hills between the Apennines and the Po plain, in a part of Piemonte that belongs to Barbera country. The province of Asti gives its name to the most important Barbera appellation in the zone, and it is from this address that the estate's range takes its character: medium-textured clay soils, warm-sloped hills, and a grape that thrives in the heat of the Asti interior.
The Langhe is a different geography: steeper, more northerly, built around Nebbiolo and its demand for altitude, aspect, and cool air. Neive is a commune in the Barbaresco zone. Serralunga d'Alba and the Barolo commune are Barolo territory, with soils that shift from the Helvetian sandstone of Serralunga toward the older Tortonian limestone-clay of Cannubi.
Two different hill systems, two grape varieties, two label outcomes. The Monferrato wines are accessible and fruit-forward; the Langhe wines are structured and built for ageing.
Soil And Site
The Mombaruzzo vineyards sit on clayey, medium-textured soils that the estate credits with producing balanced, broadly appealing wine. Clay holds warmth and moisture, and in a ripe year it gives Barbera more weight and colour than the sandier soils further north.
In the Langhe, the Cannubi vineyard in the Barolo commune sits on a distinctive ridge of mixed Helvetian and Tortonian geology that runs through the commune at a different angle from the surrounding hills. Serralunga d'Alba's soils lean hard into Helvetian sandstone: slow to warm, deep, suited to long maceration and extended ageing. Neive, the Barbaresco-zone commune, shares the marl-limestone character common to the right bank of the Tanaro.
Story
Pico and Vitaliano Maccario arrived in Mombaruzzo with no existing estate, no inherited vines, and no family wine history in the conventional sense. The 1997 land purchase was a founding decision: 70 hectares bought in one transaction, a cellar built at Via Cordara, and pop-art labels developed from the start as visually distinctive. Pop-art labels and hundreds of colored pencil-shaped posts in the Mombaruzzo vineyards gave the estate a look that did not read as traditional Piemonte.
The Langhe expansion, which brought Nebbiolo, Barbaresco, and Barolo into the range, extended the estate's geographic and commercial reach. Cannubi, the Barolo vineyard the producer now holds, carries a documented history to 1752, making it one of the most precisely dated named vineyards in Italy.
In July 2025, the Veronesi family moved quickly on an opportunity that had arrived without being planned. Their Oniwines project took ownership of Pico Maccario with a commitment to retain the team and leave the brand image intact. The estate, now present in more than 48 countries, entered a new ownership chapter with the same people in the vineyard and cellar.
Vineyards And Cellar
The Mombaruzzo estate holds a single 54-hectare parcel called Lavignone, the largest continuous Barbera block in the range. Selective harvesting focuses on picking decisions at the parcel level, choosing grape by grape rather than by date alone. The cellar uses stainless steel for wines where freshness and fruit are the target, and a mix of large barrels, tonneaux, and barriques for the Barbera and Nebbiolo wines that need oak contact.
Lavignone, as the estate's flagship Barbera, sees oak. The Serracapelli Barbaresco, drawn from the Neive vineyards, goes through barrel ageing that produces the firm tannin and cedar quality the wine is known for. Dolcevita, the Moscato d'Asti, takes a separate path: pressure-tank fermentation stops the process before full alcohol conversion, trapping the natural carbonation and leaving residual sweetness without stripping the wine's mineral freshness.
Wines
Lavignone is the anchor. A Barbera from the 54-hectare home parcel in Mombaruzzo, it carries deep colour from the clay soils, ripe plum and cherry fruit, and enough tannin from oak contact to hold across a meal. It is full, generous, and built for wide appeal without losing its Barbera character: the acidity runs through the mid-palate and keeps the wine from going flat.
Serracapelli is the Barbaresco, made from Nebbiolo grown in Neive. The 2022 vintage earned 92 points from Falstaff, with notes of red plum, spice, and cedar, balanced tannin, and a long finish. It is firmer and more austere than Lavignone, with the Nebbiolo tannin giving it the structural backbone that Barbaresco requires.
Barolo Cannubi is the Nebbiolo from the oldest parcel. Cannubi's mixed soils produce Barolo with aromatic lift, rose and tar, and a mid-palate weight that demands time in bottle. It is the most age-worthy wine in the range.
Dolcevita Moscato d'Asti comes entirely from Moscato grapes, fermented under pressure to around five percent alcohol. Dolcevita is lightly sparkling, low in alcohol, and fragrant: peach blossom, apricot, and a persistent mousse. Wine Enthusiast gave the 2024 vintage 88 points. It is the opposite end of the range from Cannubi in every respect: light, sweet, immediately approachable.
Gavi from Cortese, and whites from Viognier and Sauvignon Blanc, complete the Monferrato side of the estate.
In The Glass
Lavignone opens with ripe plum and dark cherry, a concentration that comes from the clay soils and the warmth of the Asti hills. In the mouth, the Barbera acidity cuts through the fruit and the oak adds a light grip on the finish. It is round and direct, with enough body to stand beside red meat but enough freshness to drink without food.
Serracapelli has a different register: the Nebbiolo tannin is present from the first sip, and the nose carries dried rose, spice, and cedar alongside the red plum. The finish is long and slightly dry, with tannin that softens over an hour in the glass.
Dolcevita is all aromatic lift: peach blossom, apricot, and a fine, persistent fizz. At five percent alcohol, it sits light on the palate, and the pressure-tank method keeps the mineral freshness rather than the syrupy weight that low-grade Moscato can carry. It finishes clean.
A Bottle To Understand It
Start with Lavignone. It is the wine the estate was built around: a single-parcel Barbera from the 54-hectare Mombaruzzo block, fermented and aged to give Piemontese Barbera its full character without overpowering oak. The colour is deep, the fruit is ripe plum and cherry, the acidity is firm but not aggressive, and the finish is long enough to earn a second glass. It is the most complete expression of what the Monferrato clay and the Maccario cellar do together, and it costs less than the Langhe wines while delivering more of the estate's founding logic than any other bottle in the range.
Anecdote
In July 2025, Federico Veronesi sat down for an interview about the Oniwines acquisition of Pico Maccario and said something that surprised the room: the opportunity had arrived without being planned or sought. The Veronesi family had been assembling wine producers across Italy under the Oniwines banner, but Pico Maccario was not on a prepared shortlist. When the possibility came in, the estate was already present in more than 48 countries, with a Barbera parcel in Mombaruzzo that ran to 54 hectares and a Barolo holding that included Cannubi. The family moved quickly. They kept the agronomic and oenological team intact, committed to leaving the brand image unchanged. The wines that had been built in Mombaruzzo since 1997 would carry on under the same name.
Final Word
Pico Maccario is a Piemontese estate built on two separate geographies and two separate bets: Barbera in Monferrato, Nebbiolo in the Langhe. The Lavignone parcel is the most distinctive asset, a 54-hectare continuous Barbera block with no close equivalent in the region. The Cannubi Barolo gives the estate history it did not have to invent. Between them, the range runs from fragrant low-alcohol Moscato to structured age-worthy Barolo, with the Barbera sitting at the centre of everything the brothers started in 1997.
Sources
- https://www.picomaccario.it/?lang=en
- https://www.ethicawines.com/cantine/pico-maccario/
- https://www.uritalianwines.com/winery/pico-maccario-B244.htm
- https://winenews.it/en/the-veronesi-familys-oniwines-project-arrives-in-piedmont-with-the-acquisition-of-pico-maccario_562447/
- https://laurusvini.com/en/PORTFOLIO/PICO-MACCARIO/index.php/
- https://www.wineenthusiast.com/buying-guide/pico-maccario-2024-dolcevita-moscato-moscato-dasti/
- https://www.falstaff.com/en/wines/pico-maccario-2022-barbaresco-docg-serracapelli