Cascina delle Rose

Cascina delle Rose is a small business acquired from the Rizzolio family on 1948, situated in Rio Sordo, one of the historical cru of Barbaresco. The propriety is 5 hectares of land: 4,5 of vineyard and 0,3 is used for hazelnuts, the rest is a little wood and the house.

The position and the wealth of the underground water have been fundamental elements to get to this choice. Soil and dense stratification, from the blue marls (tufi) to the calcareous ones with little sandy veins (draining) and remarkable mineral components, give as the final result the character and the elegant finesse that we find in the glass.

The passion for high-quality wines has been hand on from one generation to another.

In the beginning, we used to press only the grapes necessary for family and friends’ use and after 1984-85 we started pressing 100% of the grapes; today the annual production is about 25/27.000 bottles.

As soon as the war finished, my grandparents Beatrice and Ferdinando fell in love with this beautiful, unique house with the most wonderful views over our hills, surrounded by the most breathtaking Alps.

I carry with me some splendid childhood memories, such as warm milk just milked from the cow’s udder, of joyful days in the farmyard for the threshing of wheat, or beautiful moonlit evenings enlightened by tales and legends, that remind me of those days when my knees hurt through kneeling for hours on end gathering the hazelnuts into huge baskets, and those distinct intense perfume of the grapes fermenting in the cellars which surrounded us for miles on end!

In 1974 the need of “true things” moved me once for all in this house,  where again I found my most intense memories.

Since that moment my dream began… To continue my grandparents  activity, which also means my very own walk towards serenity and peace.

This is how we began our story…endless:  the House, the Vineyards, the Cellar and the Family.

In 1997 Italo and his sons joined me, Davide and Riccardo: our present and future.

Cascina delle Rose, with its refreshingly open, ethereal Barbaresco wines is a new exciting addtion to our range. Giovanna Rizzolio, aided by husband Italo and his young sons Davide and Riccardo, tends her 3 hectares of vines as sympathetically and naturally as possible. The Barbaresco Cru/Vigna Tre Stelle on the right of the old road has a thin layer of earth over pure calcareous soil, while Cru/Vigna Rio Sordo to the left is deep-seated with more clay; stylistically, a perfect reflection of the ethereal, raspberry kirsch Tre Stelle and mulberry-rich Rio Sordo wines.

Italo and Davide share the winemaking responsibilities; 2004 was Davide’s inaugural vintage after serving a nine year apprenticeship under Giovanna’s gaze. He also attended Alba’s well thought of Scuola Enologica Umberto 1. The wines are vinified in static stainless steel, using selected yeast, before being transferred to a battery of large 10 to 30hl slavonian oak botte, where they remain, silently, for between 15 and 18 months before bottling.

Giovanna’s story is a fascinating one: descended from Napolitana, Milanese (Como), and local Monferrato stock, her family had been mill owners and silk merchants in the region during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Located in the Barbaresco hamlet of ‘Tre Stelle’, Cascina delle Rose was bought in 1948 as the family’s summer retreat (‘una casa d’estivo’).

At first the 5 hectares were farmed polyculturally: vineyards, hazelnuts, pastoral, maize, wheat, livestock – a classic fattoria setup, complete with contadini /peasants who worked the land and sold the produce on behalf of the Rizzolio family. This ancient ‘mezzadria’ system, one of the reasons why Italian vineyards, and with that wine, failed to keep pace with their French neighbours, was in place even when the cantina was inherited by Giovanna in 1992. She immediately took a broom to the old ways and took to her tractor, setting a new course that would realise the first bottling in 2002 and new winery in 2003.