Ceramic-vessel-use in post-modern Timorasso production: Ricci, Vietti, I Carpini, and Sassaia

Post-modern Timorasso production expanded beyond the traditional stainless steel fermentation/aging vessels to include materials such as oak (barrique and cask), ceramics, concrete, etc. I have covered oak use by Martinetti and Sassaia and will explore ceramic implementations in this post.

Daniele Ricci

The first instance of amphora use that I explore is from the organic Costa Vescovato farmer Daniele Ricci who crafts four Timorasso wines from calcareous clay marl vineyards planted in 1986, 1989, 1992, and 1996. His traditional production method is fermentation in stainless steel followed by elevage in stainless steel or untreated oak or acacia barrels. In the case of his Io Camino Da Solo wine, however, the grapes are macerated for 100 days in amphora before transfer to untoasted oak barrels for 12 months aging.

Vietti

Luca and Elena Currado detailed their Timorasso production process during a Zoom Master Class with Brian Larky of Dalla Terra Winery Direct. According to Luca, because Timorasso is a white variety, everyone thinks that it needs to be protected from oxygen. On the contrary, he says. Timorasso is a variety that needs oxygen. Further, it has a lot of phenolics in the skin but likes some skin contact.

Vietti, according to Luca, had completed three experimental vintages prior to its initial release on the market. The first experiment withheld oxygen from the wine; and the result was "stinky." This led him to conclude that some oxygen exposure was required. He did not want to use barriques because he did not want the oak transfer that came with that. He settled, instead, for a mix of large casks and ceramic eggs, with the eggs providing the same amount of oxygen transfer without material impediment.

In Timorasso production, the lees need to remain suspended in the solution in order to limit reduction. Fluid movement within the egg effectuates lees-stirring.

Luca sees two styles of winemaking within the Colli Tortonesi region: on the one hand, fresh, brilliant, vertical wines and, on the other, high-skin-contact phenolic wines. Vietti's aim is to make a wine that is somewhere in the middle.

Clayver Vessels

I Carpini and Sassaia both use Clayver ceramic vessels in their wine production. The Clayver is a stoneware round egg that was inspired by clay amphorae and produced for the first time in 2014.

Clayver ceramic vessels (Source: clayver.it)

The round shape (in addition to being esthetically pleasing):

• Keeps the grape cap moist during fermentation
• Generates convective movements which reshuffle the fine lees
• Renders it "resistant, isolating, and easy to sterilize."

In addition, the wall thickness "generates thermal inertia and a uniform oxygen exchange." There is no material transfer into the wine.

I Carpini

I Carpini is an organic farm producing Timorasso dry and sparkling wines from grapes grown in the Pozzol Groppo commune. Its Timox is an orange wine which was initially made in small amphorae beginning in 2011. The winery purchased seven Clayvers in 2015. 

The grapes for the Timox wine macerate for 15 days. Fermentation initiates spontaneously while the grapes are housed in an open tank. Post-fermentation the wine is transferred to the Clayver vessels for 12 months aging on the lees.

Sassaia

Enrico de Alessandrini of Sassaia first learned of the Clayver Technology in 2017 and became enamored. After further research, he eventually employed the technology in the 2018 trials for fermentation of whites and aging of reds. He sees the advantages of the technology as :

• Consistent porosity
• Ease of sanitation
• Easier batonnage.

Sassaia expects to use the technology for both fermentation and aging going forward. It will be used, particularly, as part of the neutral regime in the production of the Derthona Riserva.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Historic Barolo producer Vietti introduces a Timorasso wine

In a Levi Dalton podcast following the announcement of the sale of Vietti to the Krause family, Luca Currado posited the arrangement as a partnership rather than a sale, saying that it provided the opportunity for the Vietti and Krause families to pursue other projects together in the future. The Vietti Derthona Timorasso lends credence to Luca's assertion.

Antonio Galloni has described the Castiglione-Falletto-based producer Vietti as "one of Italy's most historic wineries," credited with (i) being one of the first bottlers of single-vineyard Barolos and (ii) having revived the moribund Arneis variety in the 1960s. According to Antonio:

Winemaker Luca Currado, his brother-in-law Mario Cordero, along with their families and tightly knit staff, have taken the early groundbreaking work of Alfredo and Luciana Currado and built upon those successes, reaching an unprecedented level of consistency and quality across the entire range. 

My first encounter with Luca and Elena Currado was at the Galloni Vietti Rocche di Castiglione Retrospective on May 10, 2016, where I had the honor of sitting next to Luca. I found him to be warm, personable, knowledgeable, and committed to his craft. My next encounter with the family was a visit to the estate in June of the same year as a part of the launch of Suzanne Hoffman's Labor of Love. Elena led our group on that tour and tasting.

With Luca and Elena at Galloni Vietti
Retrospective

Elena Currado and Suzanne Hoffman
on our visit to Vietti 

Vietti stands among the big guns who have introduced a Timorasso wine to the market. Luca has described Timorasso wines as being akin to an Hermitage Blanc, and, given its acidity, maybe even a Chenin Blanc (Kevin Day, Openingabottle.com). It was this characteristic, and the future outlook for the variety on the world stage, that drove Vietti to pursue production of the wine.

Vietti secures grapes for this wine from three vineyards in Monleale (as shown in the chart below).

The Scalda Pulce vineyard is also the source of grapes for the Borgogno wine while Bosco Grosso is one of the grape sources for the Massa Piccolo Derthona.

The first commercially available vintage of the Vietti wine was 2018 but, according to statements by Elena, they had three experimental vintages in years prior where they sought to determine the type of  vessel that would be best-suited for aging the wine. The characteristics that they sought to balance were oxygen exchange, lees contact, and acidity preservation and they eventually settled on a mix of stainless steel, ceramic, and wooden casks (It should be noted that Massa and his early disciples restricted themselves to the use of stainless steel for both fermentation and aging.). 

The grapes are fermented for 4 weeks in the mix of vessels. There is no malolactic fermentation. Aging runs for 10 months in the same mix of vessels where the wines rest on the fine lees and are subjected to batonnage.

The Vietti Timorasso 2018 lighter in color than the Borgogno and La Colombera wines.

Sweet fruit, blackpepper, woody character, and a hint of tobacco on the nose. A complex melding of these characteristics. 

Bright acidity exciting the salivary glands. Lime. Lighter-bodied than the Borgogno or La Colombera. Stony, mineral, slightly bitter finish. Operates on the upper level of the palate.

The Timorasso "beast" has been somewhat tamed in this wine. The wines that have really knocked my socks off exhibit a little more structure, salinity, and umami.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Elvio Cogno's Barolo Ravera Bricco Pernice and Vietti's Barolo Ravera: The Emergence of Novello and Ravera

The Antonio Galloni celebration of Barolo is held annually in New York City and consists of (i) a gala dinner and (ii) a Masterclass tasting of 15 Barolos on the day after the dinner. This year's Masterclass was titled 2013 Barolo: Sublime Finesse and Elegance and featured 15 of the region's top producers discussing, in turn, their estate's 2013 vintage.

The wines were presented in flights. This flight, titled The Emergence of Novello and Ravera, featured 2013 Barolo Raveras from Elvio Cogno and Vietti presented by Valter Fissore and Luca Currado, respectively.

The Emergence of Novello and Ravera
The context of the flight title is captured pithily by Masnaghetti (Barolo MGA):

If, up until 15 years ago, Novello could be numbered among the townships of lesser importance for the Barolo appellation in terms of vineyard surface, things are quite different today. ... the vineyard surface for the production of Barolo has practically tripled over the last 13 years, now making it superior to Verduno and even to Castiglione Falletto. An expansion which has principally involved the Eastern Slopes of the township where we moreover find the best known crus, in particular Ravera and Sottocastello di Novello.

Masnaghetti goes on to say that most of this growth appears to be driven by producers from other townships expanding their growing and production capacity into the area, potentially driven by lower costs.

Galloni, in a February 2014 article, also mentioned the potential of climate change having beneficial effects for "austere" wines such as those produced in Ravera.

Ravera
Ravera is the largest of the Novello MGAs, its shared status with the Barolo commune notwithstanding (According to Masnaghetti, 4% of its 130.41 ha falls within the borders of the Barolo commune.). There was a recent significant expansion of the Cru (probably as part of the MGA classification process) because Petrini (A Wine Atlas of the Langhe) had defined it more narrowly: "The territory we have identified as the Ravera vineyard ... covers about five giornate (two hectares). It is a south-facing vineyard that runs along the Ravera municipal road descending from Novello, near the church of San Rocco, to the Panerole municipal road." A rough approximation of the boundaries of the currently defined cru is illustrated in the map below.

An approximation of the Ravera Cru illustrated in brown

The altitude of the vineyard ranges between 300 and 480 m (Masnaghetti), among the highest in the Barolo zone. This height, coupled with the lack of barriers between it and the mountains to the north, exposes the vineyard to cooler north winds. The vineyards experience copious amounts of direct sunlight and significant day-night temperature variation, yielding brilliant fruit endowed with great acidity (Luca Currado, Vietti). These growing conditions usually have the Ravera vines blooming 10 days, on average, later than the vines in other crus but they catch up during the course of the growing season (elviocogno.com).

The soil composition is 57% loam, 28% clay, and 15% sand, with the clay contributing to its water-holding capability. The limestone content is high, as is the pH(8.2).

According to Kermit Lynch, the wines from this MGA "... have the distinction of combining the structural strength of neighboring Serralunga d'Alba with the concentration and richness of Bussia and other crus further north."

Elvio Cogno Barolo Ravera Bricco Pernice
Elvio Cogno purchased Cascina Nuova in 1990, thus launching his own estate after a decades-long association with the Marcarin estate in La Morra and, earlier, making wines for patrons of his family's restaurant. In 1996 Elvio passed his business on to his son-in-law Valter Fissore, husband of his daughter Nadia. Today the winery owns 11.5 ha of vineyards in the Ravera cru, distributed over four vineyards: Cascina Nuova, Bricco Pernice, Ravera, and Vigna Elena.

Elvio Cogno and its vineyards (Source: elviocogno.com)

Bricco Pernice is a 2-ha vineyard located at 320 m elevation in a "warm and sheltered" portion of the cru. The white color of its soil is a testament to high levels of limestone interspersed with clay. The vineyard is planted with the lampia clone with two of its three parcels outfitted with 25-year-old vines and vines in the remaining parcel averaging 50 years. The vines are vertical-trellised, Guyot-pruned, and planted at 5000 vines/ha.

Bricco Pernice (Source: elviocogno.com)

The vineyard follows organic-farming principles and, as such, has eliminated the use of synthetic treatments and fertilizers.

Grapes are vinified in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks and macerated for 30 days with a submerged cap. The wines are then racked over to large Slavonian oak barrels (25 - 30 hl) for 30 months aging and is aged for an additional 18 months after bottling.

Vietti Barolo Ravera
The Vietti Ravera plot is 3 ha in size with a southwest exposure and clay-limestone soils. The vines average 25 years and are planted at 4500 vines/ha.

In a video clip on vinous.com -- wherein Luca Currado and Valter Fissore discuss the Ravera cru -- Luca stated that he has made a wine from this cru for many years but that he had to learn how to make such a wine. In the early days he had tried a more modern approach but the results were unsatisfactory: the "brilliant fruit" and "great acidity" were not adequately represented. After many years of experimentation, he finally came to the realization that the traditional approach -- long maceration and long aging in large casks -- worked best in bringing out the terroir characteristics of the fruit. The year 2000 signaled the end of the period of experimentation and ascendance to production of a reliable terroir wine.

The grapes are crushed and placed into stainless steel tanks for four weeks of fermentation and maceration (pre and post) and are aged for 30 months in Slovenian oak casks.

The Wines
The 2013 Elvio Cogno Barolo Ravera Bricco Pernice showed ripe red fruit, tar, and spice on the nose. Plum on the palate. Saline finish. The Vietti Ravera showed tar, roses, a deep cherry, licorice, and a slight balsamic note. Open on the nose. Floral on the palate. Elegant with a beautiful finish. These are both excellent wines but I found the Vietti slightly more pleasing.


©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Learnings from the recent spate of actual and rumoured sales of prestigious French and Italian wine estates

With the recent acquisition of the Burgundy property Bonneau du Martray (BdM) by American billionaire Stan Kroeneke, the Louis Vuittonification of Burgundy rolls on. BdM is one of the most prestigious estates on the hill of Corton with its 11 hectares dedicated solely to the production of the Grand Crus Corton and Corton-Charlemagne. This Burgundian biodynamic pioneer had been owned by the same family for over 200 years prior to the announcement of the sale to the Screaming Eagle owner.

Announcements -- or rumours -- of the sales of prominent French and Italian wine estates seem to be hitting with increasing regularity. The table below lists the recent sales and rumors with which I am familiar.

Recent Actual and Rumored Sales of Estates of Significance

Deals	Region	Estate	Size (ha)	Purchaser	Purchase Price	Acquisiiton Year
Verified	Barolo	Vietti	35	Krause Holdings	€50 million+	2016
		Enrico Serafino	12.14	Krause Holdings	€6.1 million	2015
	Burgundy	Bonneau du Martray	11	Stan Kroeneke	N/A	2017
		Clos de Lambrays	8.84	LVMH	€100 million?	2014
	Tuscany	Biondi-Santi	150	EPI Group	N/A	2016
Rumored	Barolo	Roberto Voerzio	21.04	LVMH	N/A	N/A
	Loire Valley	Clos Rougeard	10	Martin Bouygues	N/A	N/A

I have previously written on the Vietti sale (and its potential implications) and Voerzio rumor and some of the factors that are potentially driving this wave. In this post I would like to highlight some of the things learned as a result of this spate of activity.

First, these deals take time. According to Jacopi Biondi (Decanter, January 5, 2017), the talks with EPI for the acquisition of the majority of the shares of Tenuta Greppo took 6 months. This leads to the conclusion that the Vietti sale had been in the works long before its actual announcement. It also leads one to speculate that there are discussions currently underway which will lead to future sale announcements.

Second, most of the sales transfer majority ownership to the acquirer, leaving some ownership (and upside potential) in the hands of the former owners. As both Antonio Galloni and I have pointed out, the lack of retention of any ownership by the Vietti family is one of the troubling aspects of their deal.

Third, buyers are aiming for the most prestigious estates in the region. That is, they are not seeking to gain a foothold in the region by buying underperforming assets and building them up. They are after the highest value estates and paying top Euro, thus driving up the value of all market players. This gets to the motivations of the buyers. In the case of LVMH and EPI, their acquisitions are focused on brand-building. And not building the brand of the acquired companies (although this may result), but extending the brand of the parent company as a purveyor of luxury goods. By acquiring these properties LVMH and EPI are able to cross-sell their luxury brands to a wider customer base and to increase the prices of the acquired products as a result of the cachet associated with the brand. I address the motivation of someone like Kroeneke in the below while I think that Krause truly wants to build a franchise in Piemonte.

Fourth, in this new environment, winemaking could become more a value-retainer than a raison d'etre. With the prices being paid for these luxury estates, the investment will not be recouped by the sale of wines. Players like Kroeneke have a very good understanding of the sports-franchise business model. In this model, you can never pay too much for the product as the new purchase price sets the industry floor. As a participant in that industry, all you have to do is to maintain the value of your franchise, hold that franchise operationally profitable for X number of years, and then capitalize on a sale sometime down the road. In this case, the value of the estate to the owner is not the wine that it produces today. Rather, it is the value that it will yield in the sale tomorrow.

Fifth, family-owned estates cannot compete in this acquisition market.

Sixth, conditions are ripe for more deals of these types. Buyers are motivated and sellers are torn. In the case of France, the difficulties of paying the inheritance taxes on these estates are well known. It is much simpler for a family to transfer assets to the upcoming generation as part of a payout on a sale rather than as a transfer upon the death of a p(m)atriarch. In addition, the economics are heavily tilted to selling if you are a family in Barolo, for example. If you use Vietti as a case in point, Luca could theoretically invest the family's €50 million at 5% compounded and in 10 years would have €84 million in hand (One would expect that his daily needs would be met by the salary he will now be drawing as the leader of the Krause Barolo holdings.). Try as he might, Luca would not have been able to approach those types of returns for his family by continuing to operate Vietti as a family holding. These operators are torn between upholding tradition and cashing in in a real big way on the works of the generations that have gone before.

Further, if the industry is becoming a real-estate play, and you are a viticulturist/winemaker, then you are miscast. You are not truly equipped to play in that game as an owner (and may not be motivated to) so why not cash out.

Seventh, in the majority of cases, the acquirer is retaining the services of the current operator. In the Vietti acquisition, Luca has been retained as the CEO while Jacopi and Tancredi Biondi will oversee vineyard operations and winemaking and serve as brand ambassadors for Biondi-Santi. In the latter case, EPI will have control of the business point of view. In the case of Clos de Lambray, LVMH retained the services of its longtime chief winemaker Thierry Brouin, the architect of the previous 35 vintages of the estate's wine. BdMs current Estate General Manager, Jean-Charles Le Bault de la Morinière, is the exception to this trend in that his position will be taken up by Armand de Maigret, the French general manager for Mr. Kroenke’s vineyards, after a "suitable" period of time.

Eighth, given their prestige, and the motivations of today's buyers, I predict future acquisition activity in the Cote-Rotie and Champagne regions, in addition to ongoing activity in the regions currently under "siege."


©Wine -- Mise en abyme

The very predictable (fill in the blank) Barolo Estate sale

Late yesterday I saw a post from Anna Savino on the Barbaresco and Barolo Facebook page saying/asking "Heart is breaking ... did you hear about Voerzio?' A few queries were directed at her but she did not respond futher at that time. I had heard a rumor at the recent Cavallotto Dinner at La Pizza Fresca that Voerzio was up for sale but did not assign any credence to it at the time. So I asked if that was the issue that was causing her distress.

When I woke up this morning, I was greated by a loud verbal wail from Anna adding furher fuel to the fire and using the letters LVMH -- the company that is synonymous with luxury brands. I was intrigued and went looking around for further info. One of the boards had a petered-out thread that referenced a potential acquisition but Pernod-Ricard was the name bandied about there. I got some more substantive information later on in the morning which indicated that LVMH was believed to have purchased the Voerzio company.

And if that is the case, it would not come as a surprise to me. In August of this year, in my assessment of the Vietti sale, I wrote:

Now what are the implications of all this for the broader Barolo. There is potential for this being the tip of the spear. In a tight market, Vietti now has a competitive advantage over its neighbors. It's sources of supply are guaranteed and it is sitting on capital with which to make future acquisitions. In the podcast Luca described a property that was coming on the market but he would not bid on it because the vintner who sourced grapes from that property was a friend. With the Krauses as partners, that property could have come into his portfolio through a Krause acquisition, allowing him to hide behind the "they did it" mantle. No self-respecting market player can allow a participant to acquire and retain this type of competitive advantage without a response at some time down the road. Within that environment, the Vietti purchase is just the tip of the iceberg for Barolo: (i) All of the other vintners are facing the same pressures that Vietti was facing and drove them to this decision. (ii) Luca says there are a number of potential investors sniffing around the valley; therefore, it is only a matter of time before some of the folks seek to monetize their investments while preserving the fundamentals of the business.

Further, a little over a year ago, I lucked into predicting this event when I titled one of my posts "The Louis Vuittonification of Burgundy: A roadmap for Barolo?"

It will be interseting to see the details of this deal (if there is a deal) as they emerge.


©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Practical implications of the Vietti sale

One of the most significant events in Piemonte so far this summer has been the recent purchase of Vietti by Krause Family Holdings for a figure north of €50 million. I shared my thoughts on the deal in a recent post and review its practical implications herein.

The acquisition and sale appear to have been more opportunistic than strategic. Krause has reportedly long been on the hunt for Langhe properties and recently bought the Enrico Serafino property for around €6 million. In the case of the Vietti owners, there is no tradition of vintner-selling of property in the region (Elena, Luca's wife, even said that during our recent tour of their facility), nor has Luca previously evinced any broader vision -- for his winery or the region -- which would serve as evidence of a strategy-based sale. Rather, in his discussion with Tom Hyland, he indicated that the family had been approached by Krause. In the podcast with Levi Dalton, Luca indicated that the family discussed the offer and, while everyone did not agree with the direction, the decision was taken to accept the offer. So the evidence clearly points to tactical decisionmaking (and that is a statement of fact rather than a judgment).

With the foregoing in mind, let us take a look at the potential synergies that may accrue to the Krause family as a result of the acquisition. First, it should be noted that Vietti and Enrico Serafino were acquired in separate transactions by the holding company. This implies separate and lengthy due diligence activities and a judgment that each would be profitable in its own right. And that each would be managed separately in order to meet its individual ROI goal (That being said, it should be noted that the cost of the Vietti acquisition was almost 10 times the cost of the Serafino acquisition and that the cachet gap is probably of similar size.).

In both the Hyland and Levi Dalton interviews, Luca indicated that his remit would remain Vietti but, in the Hyland interview, he indicated that both he and Mario Cordero would act as consultants to Enrico Serafino (It cannot hurt Enrico Serafino to have one of the leading vintners in Piemonte providing advice and counsel regarding its operations.). And the relationship is already bearing fruit for Krause in that Dalla Terre, the long-time distributor of Vietti in the US, has now agreed to distribute Enrico Serafino wines in the US. It is not clear that that would have happened without the current linkage.

The figure below shows the location of the sources of Krause Barolo-targeted Nebbiolo grapes. The data included on the map was culled from a variety of sources to include the Vietti website (instrumental in identifying single-vineyard designates), Barolo MGA (Vietti plots in Barolo crus not previously identified), Galloni (Perbacco and Barolo Castiglione sites), and the Hyland interview with Luca (Enrico Serafino sites).

In his discussion of the Barolo Castigliione and Perbacco grape sources, Antonio Galloni stated that he had, on previous occasions, asked Luca why some of the components had not been bottled as cru wines and had been told that the "sites were not consistent enough from year to year to merit vineyard designated bottlings." In discussing the deal with Tom Hyland, though, Luca indicated that the holdings of the two estates might allow for the development of future vineyard designates. When I look at the map above (and assuming accuracy of the data), I do not see significant enough vineyard overlap to overcome the objections to designates raised with Antonio.

In discussions with Antonio, Luca said that the Serafino holdings might provide him the opportunity to improve the quality of the Perbacco and Barolo Castiglione wines. The question is why? Especially when, as Antonio stated, these wines are already of very high quality. If the winery cannot raise the price of the wine to accompany this increase in quality, then it has embarked on a fools errand. And customers may be resistant to a price increase based on a qiuality improvement that they may not be equipped to detect.

Further, the CEO of Enrico Serafino may be resistant to a potential decrease in the quality of his/her portfolio to benefit the Vietti labels. Just last night I saw a job listing on Linked In for a CEO for Enrico Serafino with clear responsibilities for attainment of the unit's business goals. That is not to say that Krause will not institute mechanisms to incentivize resource-sharing, but they are still in the early phases of building what could be a much larger portfolio of properties (The Vietti sale could give permission to other willing vintners to pursue a similar path and if they could sell and still retain autonomy -- a la the Vietti model -- then Krause would be the preferred home.).

On the other hand, if Krause sought to really extract the synergies of its charges, the potential exists for doing Vietti vineyard designates from sites -- Le Coste, for example -- that it had no access to prior to the sale and to fill the gaps that this might create in the Enrico Serafino portfolio with Perbacco and Barolo Castiglione grapes. This, of course, assumes that these sites merit single-vineyard designation. And, if they merit such designation, the return to the enterprise would be much higher if they were Vietti rather than Enrico Serafino designates. Such an approach would also meet Luca's promise of not increasing the number of bottles produced by Vietti.

From a Krause portfolio management perspective, if growth on the Vietti side exceeds any negative impact on the Enrico Serafino side, then it would have been a win for the enterprise. The challenge for them then, is to put mechanisms in place to allow team play and win-win situations.

Luca has talked about a partnership and it has not been readily apparent to observers. But this may be the area where that partnership plays out. If he can create new products and, in his inimitable style, drive them into the markets successfully, that would result in significant ROI from the Krause Enrico Serafino investment; albeit in a backdoor way. And Luca, having played a principal role in the realization of that new revenue source, could share in the proceeds.

So may, just maybe, this acquisition could have been strategic after all. Krause could have seen the potential of marrying his under-exploited crus with a legendary single-vineyard-producing estate and approached Luca with the idea. The selling point for Luca here would have been monetizing the Vietti property while remaining in control and, in addition, creating new single-vineyard designates from properties which were not available to him. Finally, the family could continue to benefit through sharing in any upside from the agreement. Obviously I have no facts to back up the foregoing but it falls within the realm of possibility.


©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Some thoughts on the Vietti sale

My first encounter with Luca and Elena Currado was at the Galloni Vietti Rocche di Castiglione Retrospective on May 10, 2016, where I had the honor of sitting next to Luca. I found him to be warm, personable, knowledgeable, and committed to his craft. My next encounter with the family was a visit to the estate in June of this year as a part of the launch of Suzanne Hoffman's Labor of Love. Elena led our group on that tour and tasting.

With Luca and Elena at Galloni Vietti
Retrospective earlier this year

Elena Currado and Suzanne Hoffman on our
visit to Vietti on June 3 of this year

After this level of interaction with the principals, and having been singularly impressed with the quality of the wines, I drank the Kool-Aid. I bought into the story of the artisanal family farmer whose positioning was perennial -- even though I had published posts on my site about the Burgundization of Barolo and the implicit risk for its way of life. So, like many other lovers of the concept #piemonteispiemonte, I was shocked when I saw a tweet from Suzanne which linked to the Wine Spectator article announcing the sale of Vietti to Krause Holdings for, according to estimates, upwards of €50 million.

In a Levi Dalton podcast following the sale announcement, Luca defended the deal against vocal criticism. In that session Luca was sometimes defiant, sometimes sheepish; open, but guarded; and was short on some details. He posited the arrangement as a partnership rather than a sale, saying that it provided the opportunity for the Vietti and Krause families to pursue other projects together in the future.

The problem, as Luca sees it, is the families of current farmers not wanting to renew contracts as they come to an end. As the price of the land continues to rise, the farmers, or their heirs, see more benefit in cashing out rather than renewing contracts. And with intense competition for the land, because of the current standing of the region's wine in the world, the prices are being bid up to stratospheric levels. He mentioned something on the order of €1 million per ha.

The risk to the winemaker is a potential reduction in the quality and quantity of his/her wines. If a key supplier of grapes to one of your key wines is bought out, and you no longer have access to those grapes, and can't replace it with grapes of a similar quality, then your wine will suffer a quality deficit. If you are unable to replace the grapes period, then you suffer both a quantity and quality falloff.

So the question can be asked, ok, if these plots are coming on to the market, why don't the vintners buy them? While Barolo is doing very nicely today, the cost of the land will require that the vintner take on unsustainable levels of debt in order to make acquisitions. And would need to keep going back to the well time and again in order to stanch the bleeding.

By entering into this deal, according to Luca, he has taken steps to ensure that the quality of the Vietti brand is protected going forward and there is potential for even increased quality. This happens in a number of ways. First, he now has access to the fruit from the prior high-quality Serrafino acquisitions that the Krause's have previously made. This, coupled with the fact that the deal says that the number of bottles produced by the estate will remain constant, means that he can substitute the high-quality fruit from those acquisitions for some lesser quality fruit in some of his offerings. Also, with a bigger capital pool, Vietti/Krause will be able to bid successfully for some of the properties from which they source fruit if/when those properties come on the market.

One of the things that Galloni fretted about in his thoughtful and lengthy assessment of the deal, was the fact that the Vietti family retained no ownership.  Luca, in his Levi Dalton interview, stressed that "the family" made the decision to enter into the deal with the Krauses. They had lengthy discussions and, while everyone did not necessarily agree with the direction, at the end of the day it was a family decision. One of the things that he kept saying was that the deal would allow The Krause and Vietti families to pursue additional projects in the future. But the structure of any such "future deals" is not readily apparent.  As Galloni points out, the current deal has the no ownsership stake in the new entity for the Vietti family. And with the escalating price of land, I find it hard to see a reason for Vietti to take the money earned from the sale of their property and invest it into higher priced land in the future. All evidence points to an employee-only relationship between the Currados and Krause holdings on a go-forward basis.

Now what are the implications of all this for the broader Barolo. There is potential for this being the tip of the spear. In a tight market, Vietti now has a competitive advantage over its neighbors. It's sources of supply are guaranteed and it is sitting on capital with which to make future acquisitions. In the podcast Luca described a property that was coming on the market but he would not bid on it because the vintner who sourced grapes from that property was a friend. With the Krauses as partners, that property could have come into his portfolio through a Krause acquisition, allowing him to hide behind the "they did it" mantle. No self-respecting market player can allow a participant to acquire and retain this type of competitive advantage without a response at some time down the road. Within that environment, the Vietti purchase is just the tip of the iceberg for Barolo: (i) All of the other vintners are facing the same pressures that Vietti was facing and drove them to this decision. (ii) Luca says there are a number of potential investors sniffing around the valley; therefore, it is only a matter of time before some of the folks seek to monetize their investments while preserving the fundamentals of the business.

The issue becomes how does the character of the Vietti business change as a result of the change of ownership. Will Luca spend as much time in the vineyard (or on the road) with all this cash burning a hole in his pockets? Will the management challenges of running a portfolio of assets diminish the level of his personal focus on vineyard and marketing activities? Only time will tell.

Luca should not be surprised at some of the negative reaction that the deal has generated. Some avid Vietti fans feel as though the deal amounted to a bait and switch. They bought into the advertising and the "story" of the artisan against the corporate juggernaut and, suddenly, one of the key players turns up on the "other side."  And people do not react well when they feel betrayed. In that regards, the dissemination of information about this major change in strategy was handled poorly. Vietti had a number of stakeholders: family members, distributors, retailers, restaurants, consuming public, and the Piemontese. Only one stakeholder component was prepared for this news: the family. For everyone else it was a shock. And people react negatively to shocks. Luca did admit that the news got out earlier than they would have liked.

This is potentially the beginning of a new phase in the story of the Langhe Hills. In his article Galloni speaks to a new concept: The Bordeauxification of Piemonte. One can only pray that such a fate does not befall this region. The families, the wines, and the place have combined to carve out a special place in the heart for Piemonte lovers, be they region-resident or not. We hope that the dam holds.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Tasting a selection of Vietti wines

At the conclusion of our tour of the vineyard and aging cellars, Elena Currado led us in a tasting of a selection of the Vietti wines.

The first wine tasted was the Arneis 2015. The grapes for this wine are sourced from vineyards planted in 1967 in Santo Stefano Roero on calcareous clay soils. The training system is guyot and the planting density is between 4500 and 500 vines/ha. The wine is fermented in stainless steel tanks and remains on the lees for 25 days.

Walnut and creamy richness. Lime and lime rind. Minerality. Attention-grabbing acidity. According to Elena this wine should be put aside for a while; maybe 1 year.

We next tasted the 2013 Barbera d'Alba Vigna Scarrone. The grapes for this wine are sourced from the Barbera vineyard directly below the cellar in Castiglione Falletto. This vineyard was planted in 1988 against the wishes of Luca's dad. The wine was fermented for 15 days in open-top stainless steel tanks and macerated for an additional 7 days before being transferred to barrels for malolactic fermentation (MLF). The wine was aged in barrel and bottle for 1 year.

High-tone red fruit with a predominance of strawberries. Light on the palate. Non-complex. Piney character which gives way to a metallic finish.

The La Crena Barbera d'Asti 2012 is sourced from vines planted in 1932. South-facing vineyard on clayey silt soils and vines trained guyot. Twenty-day fermentation in open-top steel vats and then transferred to barrels for MLF. Aged in barrels and barriques for 16 months. The old vines generally yield structured, powerful wines and this drives the decision to keep the wines in bottle for an additional year before commercial release.

Rich red fruit. Savoriness. Oily. Concentrated. Hint of sweetness. Great acidity. Full round mouthfeel yielding to a long finish.

The Barolo Brunate 2012 is sourced from 43-year-old vines grown on chalky-clay soils in the historic Brunate vineyard in La Morra. The 1.6-ha plot is planted to 4600 vines/ha. Three days of cold maceration is followed by 15 days of fermentation and five days of maceration. MLF in barrels followed by 36 months of aging in large barrels and barriques. Blended and bottled without filtration.

Classic tar and rose notes. Pine. Asphalt. On the palate, rich yet focused. Silky tannins. Fresh, fruity, and elegant.

As was the case for the Brunate vineyard, the Lazzarito vineyard is also blessed with chalky-clay soils. The 1.7 ha Vietti plot is SW facing and the 39-year-old vines are planted 4500 vines/ha. The 2012 Lazzarito had a nose of beautiful, rich red fruit with baking spices, black pepper, and a savoriness. Powerful wine with sweet red fruits dominating the palate.

I have described the Rocche di Castiglione MGA in greater detail elsewhere. The Vietti plot is 1.3 ha in size, is SE-facing and is planted to 4600 plants/ha with 47-year-old vines. A 29-day fermentation-maceration period is followed by MLF and 31 months in barrel.

The 2012 Rocche di Castiglione exhibited red cherries, roses, licorice, and spice on the nose. Power and bright acidity on the palate. Full, round mouthfeel. Lengthy finish.

This was a stunning lineup and reinforced the acclaim which is heaped upon the estate's wines. At the conclusion of the tasting, Suzanne Hoffman presented a copy of her book (Labor of Love) to Elena.

Elena and Suzanne sharing a moment re Labor
of Love

Parlo, Elena, and author

All-in-all a very good visit. There were no hints of what was to come.


©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Vietti (Castiglione Falletto, Piemonte): A pre-sale-announcement visit

Antonio Galloni has described the Castiglione-Falletto-based producer Vietti as "one of Italy's most historic wineries," credited as (i) being one of the first bottlers of single-vineyard Barolos and (ii) having revived the moribund Arneis variety in the 1960s. According to Antonio:

Winemaker Luca Currado, his brother-in-law Mario Cordero, along with their families and tightly knit staff, have taken the early groundbreaking work of Alfredo and Luciana Currado and built upon those successes, reaching an unprecedented level of consistency and quality across the entire range. 

My first encounter with Luca and Elena was at the Galloni Vietti Rocche di Castiglione Retrospective where I had the honor of sitting next to Luca. I found him to be warm, personable, knowledgeable, and committed to his craft. My next encounter was a visit to the estate in June of this year as a part of the launch of Suzanne Hoffman's Labor of Love. Elena led our group on that tour and did a wonderful job of presenting the estate and its products.

As you get closer to the Vietti winery, the roads become narrower, steeper, and winding. My wife was not very impressed with my efforts to navigate our rental car through this terrain. It was with a sigh of relief that I crested the hill on whose top the estate is located and saw some relatively level parking spaces.

I stepped up to the wrought-iron gates and rang the bell. Elena poked her head out of one of the buildings on the down slope at the same time as Suzanne and the rest of the team drove up. Elena buzzed us in and we walked down the incline towards the cellar. After our welcomes and introductions, Elena suggested that we go back outside to view and discuss the vineyards below the winery. It was slightly foggy but, from the vantage point of the winery, we had a very nice view of the Serralunga Valley. Elena began talking about the estate.

There had been an old winery on the site since at least 1873 -- based on the old bottles found behind the walls in the cellar -- but signs point to wine production on the property way before then.

In those days the property was a farm, rather than the grape monoculture that it is today. By the mid-1800s, they had begun to concentrate on wines and began bottling in the second half of the 1800s.

In the 1960s and 1970s Vietti, based on the activities of Luca and his dad, was one the first local wineries to promote Piemonte in the US. Today 70% of the Vietti production is exported, with the US, at 30 - 35%, the most important market.

One of the stellar figures in the Vietti history was Mario Vietti, an engineer who had lived in Boston for 25 years and only came back to Piemonte upon the death of his brother. Other Piemontese families called him "the crazy American" because he went around looking for sites to buy or rent. And he was the one working the vineyards in all those locations (i) at a time when it was much more difficult and time-consuming to get around than it is today and (ii) where the norm was to farm where you were.

Mario was a visionary. He planted Barbera in 1918 against the common wisdom. Previously, Barolo was fortified and most vineyards had been planted to Barbera. When Mario came back, Barolo was just becoming the "wine of Kings" and farmers were pulling out Barbera and planting Nebbiolo. He planted the Barbera for his personal use.

The chart below shows the current distribution of Vietti grape sources by region and the allocation of the sources by wine label. Grapes are from a mix of owned and long-term-contract (5) vineyards.

The figure shows three labels of Barbera sourced from Alba, one blended (Tre Vigne) and two crus (Vigna Scarrone and Vigna Vecchia Scarrone). The Scarrone vineyard is a 20.55 ha surface which lies below the estate and is planted to 81% Nebbiolo, 11% Barbera, 6% Dolcetto, and 2% other reds (Barolo MGA). It is in this vineyard that Mario planted his Barbera in 1906. A 100-year-old vineyard for Barbera is very unusual today.

In addition to the Alba Barberas, Vietti also produces two Asti Barberas, one a cuvee (Tre Vigne) and the other a cru (La Crena). The La Crena vineyard is a 3-ha plot which was planted in 1932 and has a vine density of 4800 plants/ha. According to Elena, this may have been one of the best quality-for-price acquisitions that the estate has made.

The winery is best known, though, for its five Cru Barolos: Rocche di Castiglione, Lazzarito, Brunate, Ravera, and Villero. Elena refers to them as Garnd Crus. The full complement of Barolo crus from which Vietti sources its grapes are shown in the table below.

Barolo Crus Farmed by Vietti
Cru	Township
Brunate	Barolo
Fossati
Ravera
Bricco Boschis	Castiglione Falletto
Codana
Fiasco
Pianta
Rocche di Castiglione
Scarrone
Solanotto
Villero
Boiolo	La Morra
Rochettevino
Lazzarito	Serralunga d'Alba

Elena sees the estate, at 300,000 bottles produced annually, as a medium-sized winery. One of her statements during the course of the visit stands in stark contrast to the current situation: "We are always looking for great vineyards. Wineries never sell but you never know with the farmers."

The vineyards are kept separate but are worked in the same way. Decisions are made regarding the wines after aging in wood. The crus are separated out with the rest being tasted blind and blended for Castiglione and Perbacco.

Nebbiolos are vinified in stainless steel tanks with fermentation and maceration of 35 - 40 days while Barberas complete the process in 25 - 30 days. Malolactic fermentation is conducted in stainless steel tanks or barriques. According to Elena, barriques are used as technical instruments; as an evolution, not a revolution.

At the conclusion of the cellar tour, we repaired to the tasting room to sample a few of the Vietti wines. I will report on that tasting in a subsequent post.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme