Ricossa

The story

The 2003 Harvest That Changed the Cellar

The summer of 2003 was brutal across Piemonte. A heat wave that lasted from June through August scorched vineyards across the region, and most growers expected a thin, stressed harvest. At Ricossa in Castel Boglione, the grapes came in differently: the heat had concentrated the fruit, and the Barbera in particular arrived at harvest with an intensity and abundance the cellar team had not anticipated. Rather than vinify immediately, they decided to experiment with leaving a portion to dry on racks before fermentation, a technique borrowed from the dried-grape traditions of other Italian regions. The drying concentrated the sugars further, produced a richer, darker wine than the classic cellar tier, and set Ricossa on a production path it has continued since. The regional winemaking community eventually recognised the method formally with a designated appellation category for appassimento wines of this kind, and the drying lofts at Castel Boglione remain part of the estate's annual production cycle.

From the atlas

Ricossa

At A Glance

The Producer

Ricossa farms 74 hectares in Castel Boglione, a village in the Monferrato zone of Piemonte, on slopes that curve into a natural amphitheatre around the estate. Barbera is the defining grape here, and has been since the early twentieth century, when the brand won gold medals at Italian wine competitions by 1911. The name itself reaches back to Lorenzo Ricossa, whose family ran a distillery from the same historic building in the late nineteenth century before the operation turned toward wine.

Today the estate draws on a further 46 hectares of partner vineyards spread across Monferrato, Roero and Langhe, which allows Ricossa to work across all three of Piemonte's principal wine landscapes from a single base. The range runs from Barbera d'Asti at the core to Barbaresco and Barolo at the top, with a certified-organic premium line, Campolibero, and a separate appassimento tier made from partially dried grapes.

Place

Castel Boglione sits in the Monferrato hills east of Asti, in the part of Piemonte where Barbera is the dominant red grape of the landscape rather than Nebbiolo. The Monferrato subzone is lower and warmer than the Langhe ridge to the southwest, which gives Barbera sufficient ripeness to fill out the grape's naturally high acidity with generous fruit and body. The Astigiano, where Ricossa's origins lie, is the heartland of Barbera d'Asti DOCG, an appellation that covers a broad swathe of the Asti and Alessandria provinces and produces some of the most direct expressions of the grape in Piemonte.

Partner vineyards in Roero and Langhe extend the portfolio north and south. Roero, across the Tanaro river from Barolo, is the home of Arneis, a white grape that produces floral, almond-edged dry whites under the Roero Arneis DOC. Langhe provides access to Nebbiolo for Barbaresco and Barolo, two DOCG appellations built entirely on that grape and subject to minimum ageing requirements.

Soil And Site

The soils across Ricossa's territory are composed of marine sediments, clay, limestone and sandstone, reflecting the ancient seabed origins of the Piemontese hills. At Tenuta Ca' dei Mandorli, those soils are arranged across the amphitheatre formation, which gives the estate good drainage and sun exposure on the upper slopes while allowing cooler, clay-heavier soils lower down. Marine-sediment soils of this kind tend to produce wines with firm acidity and mineral drive in both Barbera and Nebbiolo, which shapes the tight, food-friendly profile the estate aims for across the range.

Story

The Ricossa story opens in a distillery. Lorenzo Ricossa's family used their building in the Astigiano for spirits production in the late nineteenth century, and the shift toward wine came through contact with visiting winegrowers who prompted a change in direction. Wine proved the better bet: by 1911, Ricossa Barbera was winning gold medals at Italian competitions, a credibility that became the foundation of the brand through the following decades.

The modern production era began with the construction of a new winery in 2004, equipped for experimental work with Piemonte's heritage grape varieties. Around the same time, a difficult but unexpectedly productive harvest prompted experiments with partially drying grapes before fermentation, a method long associated with Amarone in Veneto but unusual in Piemonte. Those experiments shaped a new appassimento tier in the range and contributed to the development of a regional designation for dried-grape wines in the area. The premium Campolibero range, certified organic and covering Barbera d'Asti, Barolo and Barbaresco, represents the current direction: estate-quality, certified production from the three appellations that matter most to the brand.

Vineyards And Cellar

The 74-hectare estate in Castel Boglione is farmed across the amphitheatre slopes, giving the team control over drainage, canopy orientation and harvest timing across different elevations. Partner vineyards in Roero and Langhe are worked by the same oenological team that manages the estate, which allows consistent farming decisions across appellations rather than simply purchasing grapes on the open market.

In the cellar, the Barbaresco DOCG follows the minimum requirements of the appellation: at least two years total ageing, with at least nine months spent in wood. That wood contact softens Nebbiolo's grip and adds secondary notes of vanilla, hazelnut and spice to the grape's natural frame of red fruit and dried flowers. The appassimento wines, made from grapes left to dry and concentrate before pressing, have higher sugar at fermentation and produce wines with deeper colour, richer texture and lower acidity than the classic cellar tier. The Campolibero organic range applies certified farming across all three of its appellations, with no conventional treatments in the vineyard.

Wines

The range is built around four distinct lines. The Cellar line covers the classic Piemontese appellations: Barbera d'Asti, Barolo, Barbaresco and Roero Arneis. These are the estate's most direct expressions of each grape and appellation, with Barbera d'Asti showing the dark cherry fruit, firm acidity and medium body typical of the Astigiano, and Roero Arneis bringing white peach, almond and a clean finish typical of the grape.

The Appassimento line uses grapes that have been partially dried to concentrate sugars, which produces fuller-bodied, warmer reds with deeper colour and richer mid-palate weight. The Lorenzo Ricossa line is a named premium selection built around Barbera d'Asti and heritage positioning.

Campolibero is the certified-organic top tier, covering Barbera d'Asti, Barolo and Barbaresco. The Barolo and Barbaresco in this line are both made from Nebbiolo, aged to appellation minimums in wood, and carry more vinous weight, tannin and longevity than the Barbera-anchored tiers below them.

Across the whole portfolio, Nebbiolo, Dolcetto, Arneis, Cortese, Moscato and Brachetto appear alongside Barbera, making the range a broad survey of what Piemonte's three principal zones produce.

In The Glass

Ricossa Barbera d'Asti opens with dark cherry and a hint of violet, then delivers a mouthful that is round and fruit-forward but given shape by the grape's characteristic high acidity. The finish is clean and relatively short, with a faint tannic edge from brief wood contact. It is Piemontese Barbera in a direct, modern idiom: the fruit is generous but not heavy, and the acidity makes the wine cut through food rather than sit alongside it.

The Roero Arneis is floral and light-bodied, with white peach and almond on the nose and a slightly bitter, fresh finish. Low tannin, moderate acidity, a dry palate.

The Barbaresco DOCG moves from ruby toward garnet in the glass. The nose spans raspberry, dried flowers, warm spices, hazelnut and anise, with notes of hay and wood from the ageing period. On the palate, Nebbiolo's firm tannin provides grip, and the wine needs time in the glass or in the cellar to show its fruit fully. The finish carries spice and dried-herb complexity that lingers well beyond the last sip.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with the Barbaresco DOCG. It is made entirely from Nebbiolo grown across Ricossa's partner vineyards in the Langhe, aged for at least two years with a minimum of nine months in wood. In the glass it is garnet-edged ruby, with raspberry, dried flowers, hazelnut and warm spice on the nose. The tannins are firm and present, as they always are in Nebbiolo, but the wood ageing has added enough roundness to make the wine approachable now without losing the structural backbone that allows it to develop further. The dried-herb and anise finish is long and distinctly Nebbiolo. This is the bottle that shows what Ricossa does at appellation level with Piemonte's most demanding red grape.

Anecdote

The summer of 2003 was brutal across Piemonte. A heat wave that lasted from June through August scorched vineyards across the region, and most growers expected a thin, stressed harvest. At Ricossa in Castel Boglione, the grapes came in differently: the heat had concentrated the fruit, and the Barbera in particular arrived at harvest with an intensity and abundance that the cellar team had not anticipated. Rather than vinify the grapes immediately, they decided to experiment with leaving a portion to dry on racks before fermentation, a technique borrowed from the dried-grape traditions of other Italian regions. The drying concentrated the sugars further, produced a richer, darker wine than the classic cellar tier, and set Ricossa on a production path it has continued since. The regional winemaking community eventually recognised the method formally with a designated appellation category for appassimento wines of this kind. The drying lofts at Castel Boglione remain part of the estate's annual production cycle.

Final Word

Ricossa's strength is breadth without dilution. The estate covers more ground than most producers in Piemonte, running from Barbera d'Asti at the centre through Roero Arneis in the north to Barolo and Barbaresco in the Langhe, while keeping a certified-organic premium line and a genuine appassimento tradition alongside the classic cellar range. Barbera remains the anchor, as it has been since 1911, and the amphitheatre slopes at Castel Boglione remain the physical centre of what the producer does.

Sources

• https://www.ricossa.wine/en/
• https://www.ricossa.wine/en/the-winery/
• https://www.ricossa.wine/en/territory/
• https://www.ricossa.wine/en/contacts/
• https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2024/10/ricossa-champions-monferrato-with-its-bold-barbera-portfolio/
• https://www.ricossa.wine/en/wine/barbaresco-docg/
• https://www.ricossa.wine/en/our-wines/
• https://www.ranasslott.se/ranas-slotts-egna-choklad/
• https://www.aperitif.no/pollisten/produkt/ricossa-piemonte-barbera%2C2140416