Serralunga is extreme. No village in Barolo produces wines of greater structure and longevity. We understand that has to do with its soils, as no village in Barolo has a greater concentration of limestone.

When dealing... Read More

Serralunga is extreme. No village in Barolo produces wines of greater structure and longevity. We understand that has to do with its soils, as no village in Barolo has a greater concentration of limestone.

When dealing with such a lion of a terroir, it must be tempting to find a whip that will tame the beast. For a wine-maker, that could be barriques, or short macerations, or roto-fermentors. Those are the short-cuts.

Augusto Cappellano, like his father Teobaldo before him, does not take those short cuts. Partly, that's because he is just fine with structure and longevity. That is the natural product of Serralunga's special terroir, after all. Partly, it's because Augusto's extremely high-quality farming (the family has only four hectares so they can apply their natural farming methods assiduously to each and every vine) ensures that the grapes' tannins ripen properly, avoiding any of the harsh, bitter qualities that for years many assumed were also "natural."