The history of the Roagna estate is as old as that of Barbaresco itself with the family making the first bottles with the classification in 1890 although they had made wine and lived in the village of Barbaresco for long before this. During the 20th century they purchased selected parcels of top vineyards such as Pajé in 1953 and Pira in Barolo in 1989 and in 2004 they started vinifying each of these separately.
Today they own 20 hectares of which 12 are planted with vines in five separate vineyards, of which four are in Barbaresco, while the rest is forest. Luca Roagna represents the current generation, working alongside his father Alfredo. Production is small and the vineyards are worked organically although they are not certified. Importantly, they practise Massal Selection rather than Clonal Selection for their vineyards which helps maintain the diversity and individuality of the old vines. This is one of their ten principles, others include promoting biodiversity with no herbicides, fertilisers or pesticides, wild yeast fermentation, low sulphur and no filtering or fining, purity of terroir with no oak flavour. After an extended harvest, the grapes only being harvested when they are judged to be ripe by taste, the wines undergo a long fermentation to achieve maximum extraction together with fine tannins followed by long ageing in large oak casks, sometimes three to four years before the wines are considered ready to bottle. The results are wines of incredible finesse, balance and elegance.
Italy
