Brovia

Piedmont, Italy

The quality Brovia has achieved over the past decade has seen the estate, in the words of Antonio Galloni, “jump into the upper echelon of Barolo producers.” And, as with other old-school Langhe greats, their brilliance is not limited to Barolo. 

In 1863 Giacinto Brovia founded the Brovia estate in the village of Castiglione Falletto, in the heart of the Barolo district. In the late 1980s, Elena and Cristina Brovia, now fourth-generation-directors, started work at the winery. Elena’s husband, Alex Sanchez, joined as winemaker in 2001. 

The deep viticultural knowledge that Brovia has accumulated since the estate’s founding in 1863 results in fabulous fruit from all of their vines, and their methods in the cantina are strictly old school as well. Fermentation of the Barolos is in cement tanks for about three weeks, with frequent pump-overs to keep temperatures cool. The wine is then racked into seasoned oak botti, where it remains for two years. Bottling is without filtration. The results are among the greatest classic Barolos of our time. But, sadly, Brovia’s production is small, with only 450 cases each of Rocche and Villero, about 300 of Ca’ Mia and just 200 of Garblèt Sué are made annually, making them exceedingly hard to source. 

The Brovias, from generation to generation, have been conscientious buyers of some of the finest vineyard sites in this noble zone, concentrating their efforts in their home village of Castiglione Falletto and the neighboring Serralunga d’Alba, providing the current generation with old vines in some of Barolo’s greatest terroirs as their fruit sources. Today all the grapes come from owned vineyards. Particularly well represented is Brovia’s home village of Castiglione Falletto, where the estate boasts 50-to-60 year old vines in Rocche and Villero, both named among Barolo’s ten greatest crus in Renato Ratti’s 1980 landmark Carta del BaroloBrovia’s Garblèt Sué Barolo hails from vines planted in the 1970s in the Fiasco vineyard, another top Castiglione site. In neighboring Serralunga d’Alba, the Ca’ Mia bottling comes from Brovia’s 1950s Nebbiolo planting in the Brea cru, listed among Barolo’s top ten sites in Galloni’s classification of the appellation’s vineyards. In time-honoured fashion, Brovia continues to make their Barolos strictly from the hearts of these great sites, where the snow melts first. This ensures not only the highest fruit quality for the Barolos, but it also provides excellent terroirs within the same vineyards for Barbera and Dolcetto.

The Brovia's farm organically (although are not formally certified). They perform soil analyses every two years to ensure that the elements are in equilibrium; pruning is done to limit harvest levels; and grape clusters are thinned, when necessary, in the summer. Harvest is done entirely by hand.