More about Cascina Baricchi

Natale Simonetta grew up drinking the wines of Gaja-- not because he came from a rich family (in fact, he was the youngest of seven children in a family of humble tile layers with a house on the outskirts of Barbaresco)-- but he drank Gaja because Giovanni Gaja would bring jugs of his wine to the local town hall meetings and that was what everyone drank. Try doing that at a Community Board meeting here in New York!

With friends like Gaja, Natale’s love for Nebbiolo seemed inevitable. However the wine world was a tough one back then, and all six of his older siblings moved on. Natale stuck around and managed to cobble together a humble domain of Nebbiolo holdings starting from that once-crowded home, Cascina Baricchi. He’s been making Barbaresco ever since.

What kind of Barbaresco does he make? A story about his friendship with Barbaresco’s other giant, Bruno Giacosa, gives the clue. Desperate for vines to work, he managed to get a small lease from Giacosa back in 1980, but Giacosa had a condition: the vines he grew there weren't Nebbiolo, but rather Rosé, a very similar, legally-permitted grape which produces Barbaresco and Barolo that is almost exaggerated in its elegance and aromatics. Giacosa said that Natale could work the vines only if he produced a 100% Rosé bottling. Natale, who only wanted to make the most elegant wines possible, happily agreed to this condition.

To this day Natale produces that 100% Rosé—one of the very few in Barbaresco (our regular readers know that you can also find one in Barolo, Cogno's Vigna Elena). Natale loves elegant wines, and even his non-Rosé Barbaresco is supreme in that regard. It helps that it is produced from 50-60 year-old vines in top sites (including Roncaglie in Barbaresco).

All of Natale’s wines are riservas, because Simonetta is a patient man and believes the extra year of aging (in large neutral casks, of course), enhances that elegance. One wine—from his best grapes and produced only in top vintages—is released only after five years of aging in cask and a further 10 years in bottle!