The cellars of Langhe Roero and Monferrato represent a unicum in the varied and rich wine scene of the peninsula. Because really in Piedmont every hill is a wine and every farmhouse a cellar. Legacy of a very fragmented medieval past, Piedmont has practically never known the latifundio. Up to Carlo Alberto and Cavour the nobility had never been interested in agriculture, considering land properties as a source of simple income, alienable in case of need (that is often) to pursue instead the prestigious military and diplomatic careers. So in Piedmont, before and better than the rest of Italy, a fragmentation of land ownership developed which as a result of the Napoleonic laws (which abolished the birthright) has further amplified in the last two centuries.Here, and only here, today therefore the classic farm (or 90%) does not produce more than 50,000 bottles, a medium-sized one goes around 200-300,000 and a large cellar (which, moreover, can be counted on two hands ) even reaches a million bottles! Very modest numbers when compared to the average Italian numbers, not to mention the rest of the world. In addition, the Piedmontese winemaker produces practically always and only from native vines, vinified in purity, with traditional aging methods (the famous large Slavonian oak barrels) but also when he chooses to use French woods (tonneaux and barriques) it is always the terroir to give the imprint, the trademark of the "Piedmont vineyard".
The result of these conditions was the exaltation of a proud peasant identity that pushed the competition between these micro-farms to the maximum, raising to the stars a quality that manifests itself from the vineyards combed like gardens. Visiting a winery on these hills is a journey through time where each of the ancestors has added something, it is first of all meeting a family, being welcomed into the house and becoming part of a story. A story of toil and hardship that after so many centuries of hunger and sacrifices finally reaped the well-deserved fruits. The wines of Langhe and Roero are today in the worldwide gotha of large bottles, respected and drunk, but not by everyone: only by those who have found in the wine a happy marriage of culture and pleasure.