From the atlas
Poderi Roset
Silvio Busca's 15-hectare Verduno estate, where five named parcels across the hills above the village feed a range from Pelaverga Piccolo to cru Barolo from Monvigliero.
At A Glance
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| Region | Piedmont, Italy |
| Village | Verduno, Cuneo |
| Main grapes | Nebbiolo, Pelaverga Piccolo, Barbera, Dolcetto, Arneis |
| Signature wine | Barolo Monvigliero Riserva |
| Defining feature | Single-vineyard mapping across five Verduno sites, from the Monvigliero hill to the Dronera parcel reserved for Pelaverga |
The Producer
Silvio Busca began cultivating vines in Verduno in 1985, eight years before he made a bottle of wine. When he finally built the cellar and vinified the 1993 vintage, he called the estate Poderi Roset, taking the name from the local land it sits on. Busca is a trained wine technician, and that background runs through the operation: each of the five named parcels on the 15 hectares is assigned to a specific wine, so the range is as much a map of Verduno's hills as it is a product list.
Verduno is the northernmost Barolo village, quieter and less visited than La Morra or Barolo itself. Monvigliero, the great cru of the village, sits above the castle and produces Nebbiolo with the chalky lightness the area is known for. Busca farms parcels at Monvigliero for his cru Barolo, at Campasso and Olmo for his traditional Barolo, at Neirane for Barbera d'Alba, and at Dronera for Dolcetto and Verduno Pelaverga, the rare local red variety that almost only exists in this one village.
Place
Verduno sits in the Langhe hills of Cuneo province, in southern Piedmont. The village gives its name to the Verduno Pelaverga DOC, a tiny appellation built around Pelaverga Piccolo, a grape found in meaningful commercial quantities in almost no other commune. Barolo DOCG also runs through Verduno, with Monvigliero recognised as one of the appellation's historic crus. The chalky soils of this northern Barolo village tend to produce Nebbiolo on the lighter, more aromatic end of the spectrum, with what one source describes as a hint of spice alongside the elegance the terrain produces.
Poderi Roset's address is Via Carlo Alberto 19, in the centre of the village. The cellar is open for tastings and direct sales.
Soil And Site
The chalky ground that runs through the Monvigliero hill gives the estate's Barolo its character: the importer describes it as soil that brings elegance and a spicy accent to the Nebbiolo. That chalk, a calcium-rich substrate typical of the northern Langhe, drains freely and warms quickly, letting Nebbiolo ripen while keeping the wines from building the heavy, tannic body found in the more clay-dominant southern Barolo communes.
The Dronera parcel, used for Dolcetto and Pelaverga, and the Neirane parcel, used for Barbera, sit elsewhere in the Verduno territory, separating the fruit-driven varieties from the Nebbiolo hillsides.
Story
Busca spent eight years learning what his Verduno vineyards could do before committing to a winery. From 1985 he farmed the land; in 1993 he decided the fruit was worth bottling under his own label. The name he chose, Poderi Roset, was the traditional name for the area where the estate sits, not a brand invented for the market.
The parcel-to-wine logic the estate now runs was built from the beginning. Each vineyard feeds a specific wine, and Busca has extended that thinking into the cellar by working with a barrel maker to produce custom 2,500-litre casks for the Barolo, assembled in Austria to a specification that combines Slovenian and French oak in equal measure. He found that combination worked best for oxygen exchange and ageing. The regional association Verduno è Uno lists the business under its legal name, Az. Agr. Poderi Roset S.S. di Busca Silvio & C.
Vineyards And Cellar
The 15 hectares around Verduno are divided across five named sites. Monvigliero supplies the Barolo Cru and Barolo Monvigliero Riserva. Campasso and Olmo supply the traditional Barolo. Neirane supplies the Barbera d'Alba. Dronera supplies the Dolcetto d'Alba and the Verduno Pelaverga.
For Barolo, Busca uses 20 to 25 days of maceration and then ages the wine for around 24 months in those custom 2,500-litre casks, each built from half Slovenian and half French oak, between two and fifteen years old. The oak size matters: at 2,500 litres, the casks sit between a standard Barolo botte and a small French barrel, giving slower, gentler oxygen exchange than a barrique without the neutrality of a very large vessel.
The Verduno Pelaverga takes a lighter path. Maceration runs eight to ten days, then the wine spends around eight months in stainless steel and four months in bottle before release. The Roero Arneis, made from 100% Arneis grown across the river in the Roero, goes through temperature-controlled fermentation and six months on its yeasts with bâtonnage before bottling.
Wines
The range anchors on Barolo in three forms. The traditional Barolo draws from Campasso and Olmo, blending multiple Verduno vineyards into a single wine. The Barolo Cannubi moves to one of the most recognised Barolo crus, outside Verduno's immediate hills. The Barolo Monvigliero Riserva is the estate's top bottle, from the village's most famous site, given the extended ageing the Riserva designation requires.
Verduno Pelaverga is the estate's most distinctive wine by grape variety alone: Pelaverga Piccolo is a rare Piedmontese red with a musky, spiced aromatic profile and relatively light body. It spends no time in oak, just stainless steel and bottle, keeping the fruit and aromatics fresh.
The Sansa Sagrìn rounding out the importer's list is not detailed in available sources. The Roero Arneis offers a white counterpoint to the red range, dry and built on citrus and white flowers, with a slightly bitter almond finish.
In The Glass
The Barolo from Verduno's chalky soils sits on the aromatic, relatively lighter side of the Langhe. Nebbiolo from this village brings cherry, dried rose, tar, and the mineral note that the calcium-rich ground tends to contribute. The custom oak regime, 24 months in 2,500-litre casks split between Slovenian and French oak, adds texture and a spiced quality without the vanilla or sweetness that smaller French barrique can sometimes impose.
The Verduno Pelaverga, from a professional tasting of the 2021, showed coffee, red cherry, and tobacco on the nose. On the palate it was broad, with moderately dense red cherry and raspberry, supple at the front but with some unabsorbed acidity and slightly firm tannins behind. The drinking window assessed for that vintage ran from 2023 to 2028. It is a wine with immediate aromatic appeal and acidity and tannins that need a year or two to settle.
The Roero Arneis is dry, with white flowers, fresh fruit, citrus, and a characteristic almond-edged finish. Six months on its yeasts with bâtonnage adds a light creamy texture without weight.
A Bottle To Understand It
Begin with the Verduno Pelaverga. It is not the estate's most serious wine, but it is the one that shows most clearly why Verduno exists as a distinct address. Pelaverga Piccolo is a Piedmontese variety that has survived in this one village and essentially nowhere else. Poderi Roset's version runs through eight to ten days of maceration, then stainless steel, keeping the grape's musky coffee, red cherry, and tobacco aromatics intact rather than smoothing them under oak. The palate brings raspberry alongside cherry, with firm acidity and tannins that need a year or two to settle. Once that profile is understood, the estate's Barolo from the same Verduno hills makes sense as a deeper, longer expression of the same chalky, spiced terroir.
Anecdote
Silvio Busca chose his barrels the way a builder specifies materials: he approached an Austrian barrel maker and described exactly what he wanted, a 2,500-litre cask assembled from half Slovenian oak and half French oak, in a size and wood combination he had concluded worked best for oxygen exchange and ageing. The casks are not a standard catalogue item. They are made to his specification, each one. For a small Verduno estate producing from five named parcels, the decision reflects the same logic he applied to the vineyard mapping: every variable chosen rather than inherited.
Final Word
Poderi Roset farms five named Verduno parcels, each assigned to a specific wine, from Pelaverga Piccolo aged in stainless steel to Monvigliero Nebbiolo aged in custom Austrian casks. The estate is the address for Verduno Pelaverga in its most site-faithful form.
Sources
- https://www.poderiroset.it/en/
- https://www.poderiroset.it/en/cantina/
- https://vosselections.com/producer/poderi-roset/
- https://www.verdunopelaverga.it/poderi-roset/
- https://www.poderiroset.it/en/portfolio_page/roero-arneis-docg/
- https://vosselections.com/product/barolo/
- https://vosselections.com/product/verduno-pelaverga/
- https://terroirsense.com/en/p/9116.html