Albino Rocca

The story of the Albino Rocca winery is one shaped by tradition and a great care for the Piemonte terroir in which its based. Born out of the 1940s, when Giacomo, father of the eponymous Albino, began selling grapes from family vineyards, later making his own wine in small quantities, family tradition has forever shaped. In the 1960s Albino inherited the winery, combining hard work and familial support to lay the foundation for a business that’s grown internationally over the years, since its first production of Barbaresco in 1971. Its wines – largely Barbaresco made from Nebbiolo, alongside wines from Dolcetto, Barbera, Cortese, Chardonnay and Moscato – have continued to evolve in quality over four generations, using grapes harvested from four crus that cover 18 hectares in total.

Vigna Ronchi is the cru that best represents the Albino Rocca winery, which sits at its top. Covering 3 hectares, it’s the oldest and largest site of the estate, with a south-east exposure and nutrient-rich soil of limestone, clay and layers of ‘tufo’, home to vines over 70 years old. From it stems the elegant Albino Rocca Barbaresco Ronchi, a wine made from the Nebbiolo grape, aged for 20 months in 20 hectolitre neutral Austrian and German oak barrels, highlighting the unique characteristics of the grape and the land from whence it comes – pristine aromas, a seductive texture, juicy red fruits and an acidity that makes it a wine set to last.

The land has always occupied a place of utmost importance for the Rocca family, with technology forever secondary to respect for terroir and vinification focusing on the drive to capture the land and the grape’s living, evolving characteristics, where ageing expresses rather than obscures the unique identity of the wine’s origins.

The family have been central to the maintenance of this philosophy, and the next generation saw the inheritance of Albino’s son, Angelo, whose career in the winery had begun at the age of 15. ‘Barbaresco’s free thinker’, he ushered in changes including the reduction of chemicals, separate vinification of crus and varied aging techniques. Under his management the Albino Ronchi winery achieved Piemonte’s ‘Green Experience’, a certification solely granted to wines from this region produced from viticultural methods that conserve natural resources and protect the landscape. His tragic passing in 2012 led to the inheritance of the winery by his three daughters and son-in-law (Angelo’s first student, assistant, son-in-law and now winemaker), who continue the mission of their father, and ancestors before them – beautiful Barbaresco underpinned by a beautiful philosophy.