The Project “Ca’ d’Morissio”

Barolo MONPRIVATO “Cà d’Morissio”: a historic clone in a new vineyard. Barolo MONPRIVATO has always been produced using 100% hand-picked Nebbiolo grapes selected as a true expression of this vineyard located in the village of Castiglione Falletto. Under the DOCG regulations governing the production of Barolo, a yield of 8 tons/ha is envisaged for the 6.13.12-hectare MONPRIVATO vineyard, giving an annual production potential of 41,600 bottles.

The actual output, however, varies between 14 and 24,000 bottles, depending not only on the climatic conditions of the vintage, but also – and above-all – on stringent winter pruning of the vines, berry-thinning in spring and summer, and uncompromising grading of the picked grapes.

The MONPRIVATO vineyard has always been set apart for the growing of the Nebbiolo vine, and until 1992 its three sub-varieties were grown here in the following percentages:
Nebbiolo – Michét variety 30%
Nebbiolo – Lampia variety 45%
Nebbiolo – Rosé variety 25%

The Michét and Lampia varieties give the wine color, structure, personality, and the ability to stay young for many years. Rosé provides delicate aromas, elegance, a soft color and little structure.

When the Nebbiolo vine is planted on outstanding wine-growing land it is capable of expressing itself at sublime, peerless levels, in this area producing Barolo, a wine brimming with qualities that satisfy the senses of smell and taste completely with its velvety tannins and the intensity of its bouquet.

This is the case, for example, of MONPRIVATO, which – given the location of the vineyard on white, silty-calcareous soil full of active limestone and micro and macro-elements – produces a Barolo with a delicate, intense, elegant nose; ample, smooth tannins packing it with polyphenols; complexity, a long-lasting flavour, and bright – though not intense – anthocyanins.

I had long wished to grow a Barolo on the MONPRIVATO vineyard in which the bouquet and palate would be complemented by a gratifying appearance, without sacrificing the vineyard’s characteristic elegance and complexity, and continuing to work the vineyard in keeping with the traditions of the family, in other words:

• tending of the vineyard applying the rules, techniques and self-limitations that my family has been implementing for decades in order to obtain perfect “raw material” in every sense throughout all the vegetative phases of the vine;
• excluding any interference from sources which are alien to the soil, and to what is the most highly-prized vine and wine-growing emblem of Alba and the Langa, in order to produce a classic, big MONPRIVATO with the smooth, natural tannins of the Nebbiolo variety, plus the unmistakable personality and remarkable elegance that go to make up the distinctive style of the MONPRIVATO vineyard and the wine it produces in expressing this territory;
• a wine-making process using only the native Nebbiolo grape, with a traditional, lengthy but soft maceration to extract the Nebbiolo’s varietal components to the very utmost;
• maturing in casks made of used Slavonian oak holding from 20 to 90 hectoliters