Bricco Ernesto

In 1993, Renato Vezza’s grandfather Ernesto died, passing his microscopic parcel atop a Roero hill to his son, who quietly converted the vineyard entirely to organic viticulture. Until 2015, Renato worked in London as a sommelier and in Canada as a sushi chef, until he returned home and convinced his father to cease selling fruit to a nearby producer in Barolo.

Today, Renato farms 0.6 hectares (Nebbiolo and Arneis), with only 0.3 hectares currently in production and another 0.3 hectares planted in 2019. Reds are all partly sourced from 90 year-old vines, averaging 30-35 years-old across all plots. Renato and his partner Elisa tend the vines personally, maintaining meticulous oversight of their entire crop. In the winery, reds ferment destemmed via indigenous yeast in small cement tanks without temperature control, there are limited pumpovers followed by submerged cap in a closed tank until dry, regularly lasting 4 weeks to 55 days. Finally, the wines ages in barrel and bottle for a further year each. The Arneis is fermented on skins in Slavonian barrels for 100 days followed by six months in amphora.

The finished wines are forward and generous with classic aromatics and grippy, textural palates. The whites are distinctly fleshy with ripe, tropical aromas and ample dry extract.