ferdinando principiano
“I take care of the land for my son to inherit, but really, he and I are just
stewards. The land is everyone’s inheritance.”
Domaine Overview
Year Founded: 1993
Winemaker: Ferdinando Principiano
Location: Barolo & Langhe, Northeast Piedmont
Size: 21 hectares
Grapes:
Nebbiolo, Barbera, and Dolcetto
Farming: uncertified organic and biodynamic
Production: About 35,000 bottles/year
Ferdinando Principiano is producing world-class elegant and natural wines, with a watermark of traditional Barolo terroir. he goes way beyond the normal organic practices and is obsessed with preserving or creating the conditions for biodiversity in and around his vineyards. This includes buying adjacent forests, and creating a pond at the base of his Boscareto cru that acts as a home for migratory birds, and a chorus of frogs. He works the vineyards by hand, including the use of a scythe.
Barolo from the pre-80’s were not brooding. Yes, some vintages were green, tannic and washed out. And it’s no wonder that from around the 80’s onward, most Barolo producers began to practice green harvesting to concentrate fruit for consistent results. Yet, at the same time, climate change also silently marched on. So much so that from the 90’s onward we started seeing a more extracted Barolo style of wines, with elevated alcohol levels that started at 14.5% – and often reached 15% or more. These alcohol levels can be equated with both traditional and modern producers. This is not to say that some of these wines can’t be extraordinary, like single malt scotch or Mezcal can, but they are not refreshing. Pairing them can also be difficult. And, in the end, the sprightly and ethereal Nebbiolo as Barolo started to have become banished as a sipping wine for formal dinners with roasted meats. That’s all in contrast to a recent visit with Ferdinando, where we noshed on anchovy and butter sandwiches, while sipping and drinking a few glasses of his delicious cellar-temperature Barolo ‘Boscareto’ 2016. One of our colleagues promptly repeated this experience, when her friend came over for a simple midweek pasta. What a joy to be regularly drinking Barolo again! with its ethereal nose, lithe mineral fruit and deliciousness!
How does Ferdinando accomplish this? First, he truly wants to be drinking these kind of wines. Many current Barolo producers enjoy a more brooding and extracted style, and the alcohol levels don’t seem to bother them. Second: Ferdinando totally eschews green harvest, preferring a wild and thick leaf canopy provides that gives shade to the grape clusters (the best of which he uses for some whole-cluster fermentation). Third: all fermentations are spontaneous and in stainless steel. He doesn’t add SO2 between the end of the harvest and until the end of the malolactic fermentation, which, while not pertaining to alcohol levels, does allow the nose to remain extremely fresh, expressive and pristine.
