Italy · Langhe

San Biagio Azienda Agricola di Giovanni Roggero

La Morra family estate bottling Barolo from six named MGAs on the Bricco San Biagio hill since 1923, with Barbaresco from Treiso and two zero-dosage Alta Langa sparkling wines from Pinot Noir.

The producer

The Roggero family has bottled wine under its own label from a hill above La Morra since 1923. In a zone where most growers sold their Nebbiolo harvest to négociants and cooperatives well into the second half of the twentieth century, that early independence matters: the estate built its name around a specific place before the Langhe became the market it is today. The property takes its name from the Bricco San Biagio hill, and so does Barolo Bricco San Biagio. Twenty-two hectares spread across six named La Morra MGAs and one Treiso parcel, all farmed without pesticides or herbicides, with native vegetation between the vine rows and beehives on the property kept by winemaker Gianluca Roggero.

The cellar runs two tracks. Barolo matures in large and medium oak casks inside the 1923 farmhouse, a slow process that preserves the aromatic character of La Morra Nebbiolo without adding oak flavour. A second underground cellar, built in 2000, handles tonneaux and barrique ageing for other wines and bottle refinement for the Alta Langa sparkling range. The three siblings who run daily operations divide the work by expertise: Davide manages the vineyards, Gianluca handles winemaking, and Tiziana runs commerce and hospitality. Their father Giovanni coordinates. In 2001, the estate planted in Treiso to bring a Barbaresco into the range, a deliberate move into a different DOCG with cooler soils and a tighter profile.

Known for

Barolo from single-MGA La Morra vineyards; zero-dosage Alta Langa Riserva from Pinot Noir.

Notable facts

The story

The Hill They Moved To

In 1963, the Roggero family packed up and moved into the cascina on the Bricco San Biagio hill above La Morra. The estate had been bottling wine under its own label since 1923, already an unusual position in a zone where most growers sent their harvest to négociants and cooperatives. But until 1963, the family did not live on the hill. Giovanni Roggero, who was taking over from his father Giacomo, moved them there and committed to vine growing as the family's primary occupation at a moment when the Langhe wine market had not yet found the international audience that would arrive a generation later. The hill was named, the cascina was old, and the parcels were already worked. Moving in made those parcels the family's daily landscape rather than a commercial operation managed from a distance. The estate's name, Barolo Bricco San Biagio, and its address have all been the same ever since.

From the atlas

San Biagio Azienda Agricola di Giovanni Roggero

At A Glance

Location: La Morra, Barolo DOCG, Langhe, Piemonte, Italy Grapes: Nebbiolo, Pinot Noir Key wines: Barolo Bricco San Biagio, Barbaresco Montersino, Alta Langa Riserva Farming: No pesticides or herbicides; native vegetation between rows Estate size: 22 hectares

The Producer

The Roggero family has bottled wine under its own label from a hill above La Morra since 1923. In a zone where most growers sold their harvest in bulk well into the second half of the twentieth century, that early independence is not a small fact: it means the estate built its name around a named place before the Langhe became the market force it is today.

The property takes its name from the Bricco San Biagio hill, and so does Barolo Bricco San Biagio. Giovanni Roggero, son of founder Giacomo, was among the first producers in the zone to treat vine growing as a primary specialization rather than a sideline, and the current generation carries that focus forward in a divided arrangement that fits the scale: Davide manages vineyards and plant-health work, Gianluca handles winemaking, and Tiziana manages commerce, communication and hospitality. Giovanni coordinates. Twenty-two hectares across six named vineyard sites in La Morra, and one parcel in Treiso acquired for Barbaresco production in 2001.

Place

La Morra is a commune in the southern Langhe, inside the Barolo DOCG zone, which covers eleven communes in the hills south and west of Alba. The Barolo zone is planted almost entirely in Nebbiolo, and the commune of La Morra sits on the western side of that zone, where soils run to calcareous Tortonian clay marls. Those marls produce Barolo that tends to be more aromatic and earlier-opening than the wines from the sandstone-heavy soils of Serralunga d'Alba to the east.

The six La Morra vineyard sites San Biagio farms are designated MGAs, Menzioni Geografiche Aggiuntive, the official Barolo sub-zone classification introduced in 2010 that allows a producer to name a specific vineyard on the label. Bricco San Biagio is the home MGA, the hill the estate is built on. The Treiso parcel, where the Barbaresco Montersino comes from, sits in a different DOCG entirely: higher, cooler, and across the Tanaro river from the La Morra positions.

Soil And Site

The La Morra MGAs sit on the calcareous clay marls typical of the western Barolo zone: compact, alkaline soils with a relatively high proportion of clay that retain moisture and slow ripening into autumn. These soils favour Nebbiolo's aromatic side. The Bricco San Biagio vineyard sits on this clay base at moderate altitude above the La Morra village.

The estate maintains native vegetation in the rows between vines rather than bare soil or cultivated cover crops, and farms without synthetic pesticides or herbicides. Gianluca Roggero keeps beehives on the property as a practical commitment to maintaining a living ecosystem around the vines.

Story

Giacomo Roggero founded the estate and registered its first labels in 1923. Independent bottling in the Langhe at that period was genuinely unusual: most growers sold their Nebbiolo to négociants or cooperatives, and the market for estate-bottled Barolo from small producers barely existed. San Biagio was operating against that pattern from the beginning.

In 1963, the family moved into the cascina on the Bricco San Biagio hill itself. Giovanni Roggero, who took over the direction of the estate from his father, used that relocation as a springboard: he was an early advocate for treating Langhe vine growing as a full specialization, not a supplement to mixed farming, at a moment when the zone had not yet attracted the international attention that would arrive in later decades.

The 2000 vintage saw the construction of a second cellar beside the 1923 farmhouse, adding a modern vinification area and underground maturation rooms. A year later, the estate planted in Treiso to bring a Barbaresco into the range. Those two decisions, made in consecutive years, extended the estate's geographic and commercial scope without abandoning the La Morra base that had defined it.

Today the operation runs as a working family division across three siblings, with Giovanni still coordinating. The 1923 farmhouse still functions as a cellar.

Vineyards And Cellar

San Biagio runs two cellar tracks, each matched to a different wine style.

Barolo matures in large and medium oak casks in the 1923 farmhouse cellar. Large-format oak at this scale means slower oxygen exchange and longer maturation: the Nebbiolo holds its tannic grip for longer and the oak contributes less flavour than barrel ageing in smaller casks would. The approach is classical for La Morra and consistent with wines that need time in bottle after release.

The 2000 underground cellar handles maturation in tonneaux and barriques for other wines and manages bottle ageing. Tonneaux sit between a traditional large cask and a small barrique in volume, giving more wood contact than a foudre without the intensity of a 225-litre barrel. The Alta Langa sparkling wines go through their second fermentation and extended bottle ageing under this regime before disgorgement.

In the vineyard, Davide Roggero manages phytosanitary controls without herbicides or pesticides, and the estate keeps native grass and vegetation in the inter-row spaces. Six La Morra MGAs are farmed across the estate: Bricco San Biagio, Galina, Capalot, Rocchettevino, Roncaglia Soprana and Serra dei Turchi.

Wines

San Biagio builds its range across three appellations and two grapes.

Barolo Bricco San Biagio is the estate's home wine: 100% Nebbiolo from the single MGA that shares the estate's name. The 2017 carries spice and balsamic character on the nose, with prominent sweet tannins in the mouth and a finish that runs through liquorice, tobacco and tar. Those tar and tobacco notes are classic Nebbiolo on calcareous clay, amplified by the long period in large oak casks. The wine is built for the medium term.

The estate holds parcels in five additional La Morra MGAs: Galina, Capalot, Rocchettevino, Roncaglia Soprana and Serra dei Turchi. These may produce separate cuvees or contribute to a communal La Morra expression depending on vintage and range decisions.

Barbaresco Montersino is a 100% Nebbiolo from the Treiso parcel planted in 2001. The Montersino MGA in Treiso is cooler and higher than the La Morra positions. That altitude difference typically produces Barbaresco with firmer acidity and a tighter frame in youth compared to the warmer La Morra Barolo positions.

Alta Langa Riserva and Alta Langa Rosé Riserva are both zero-dosage sparkling wines made from 100% Pinot Noir under the Alta Langa DOCG. Zero dosage means no sugar added at disgorgement, so the wines carry only the sweetness present in the base wine: dry, lean and direct, with a bready, autolytic character built from long bottle ageing on the lees. The rosé version carries colour from the Pinot Noir's skin contact or base wine character.

In The Glass

The Barolo Bricco San Biagio opens with a characteristic La Morra aromatic lift: dried rose, tobacco leaf and a balsamic note over the darker Nebbiolo fruit. In the mouth, the tannins are prominent but carry a sweet quality, without the hard astringency that younger Serralunga Barolo can show. The mid-palate fills with spice and dried herbs, and the finish runs long through liquorice and tar, with a slight mineral grip from the calcareous clay. Large-cask ageing preserves that aromatic profile without adding oak flavour, and the acidity is enough to carry the wine through several years of bottle development.

The Alta Langa Riserva sits in a different register entirely: fine persistent mousse, the crisp bread-and-cream autolytic character of extended lees contact, and a dry finish with no sweetness and enough acidity to feel precise and clean. The Pinot Noir base adds a faint red-fruit note without colour or weight.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with the Barolo Bricco San Biagio. It is the wine that holds every element of San Biagio's work in one bottle: named place, long-farmed calcareous clay, 100% Nebbiolo, and patient maturation in the 1923 farmhouse cellar in large oak casks. The nose is aromatic and lifted in the La Morra style, the tannins have the texture of good Barolo at a few years of age, and the finish runs long through tar, liquorice and dried spice. Open it with food, or lay it down for another five years and come back to find it looser and more giving. Either way, it explains what the hill produces and what the Roggero cellar does with it.

Anecdote

In 1963, the Roggero family packed up and moved into the cascina on the Bricco San Biagio hill above La Morra. The estate had been bottling wine under its own label since 1923, which was already an unusual position in a zone where most growers sold their harvest to négociants and cooperatives. But until 1963, the family did not live on the hill. Giovanni Roggero, who was taking over the direction of the estate from his father Giacomo, moved them there and committed to vine growing as the family's primary occupation at a moment when the Langhe wine market had not yet found the international audience that would arrive a generation later. The hill was named, the cascina was old, and the parcels were already worked. Moving in made those parcels the family's daily landscape rather than a commercial operation managed from a distance. The estate's name, Barolo Bricco San Biagio, and its address have all been the same ever since.

Final Word

San Biagio is a La Morra estate whose age is its least interesting quality. What matters is the practice behind the label: six named MGAs farmed without synthetic inputs, two cellar systems matched to different wine styles, and a Barbaresco added only when a specific site in Treiso was ready. The Barolo Bricco San Biagio is a genuine single-vineyard wine from a hill the family has worked for a century. That is a good foundation for a bottle.

Sources

Open San Biagio Azienda Agricola di Giovanni Roggero in the interactive map →