Elio Grasso

Elio Grasso farms at Monforte d'Alba, on the eastern side of Barolo, where the family have held land since 1918. Elio left a career in banking in 1978 to take over from his father, and his son Gianluca now runs it alongside him.

The estate is small by any measure, around eighteen hectares, and almost all of it lies in two adjoining amphitheatres, Ginestra and Gavarini. Monforte sits on Helvetian soils, older and more compacted than the marls to the west, and its wines are among the most structured and long-lived in the appellation. The vineyards are steep, south-facing and worked by hand.

Grasso is one of the estates that resolved the argument between traditional and modern Barolo rather than taking a side: long macerations in the traditional manner, but with clean, precise winemaking and a mix of large casks and barrique chosen wine by wine. The cellar itself is cut forty metres into the hillside. Among the most consistently admired names in the Langhe.