Province of Cuneo
Established: 1850
Owner: Manuel Marchetti
Winemakers: Manuel Marchetti & Armando Cordero
Production: 125,000 bottles
Hectares under vine: 25
Viticulture: Organic
Founded by Luisa’s great-great-great-grandfather, the estate was one of the very first in the area to designate single vineyards on its labels (as early as the 1950s). In fact, one of Marcarini’s superb, historical crus is the 100-year-old Boschi di Berri, whose Dolcetto vines are the oldest in Italy, the only ones to have survived phylloxera and maintained indigenous rootstock. The Nebbiolo grapes for Barolo are grown within the original nucleus, high on the rolling terroir of La Morra: two celebrated, contiguous crus, Brunate and La Serra, close to the Marcarini home and winery.
Their range of classic Piedmontese wines offers both typicity and value. Arneis, a variety that has made a comeback from near extinction in the 1970s since its elevation to DOCG status, is delicately aromatic with hints of apple, honey and acacia. The single vineyard La Morra Barolos are from the two celebrated crus of Brunate and La Serra. Brunate is typically muscular with dark fruits and spice and superb longevity, while the La Serra is understated elegance, softer and rounder, with velvet-wrapped intensity. The wines are made the same way: 45 days of maceration in stainless steel and cement, malolactic completed in steel and then two years ageing in large casks.