La Spinona


— About —

THE ESTATE

The history of La Spinona dates back to November 1920, when Giovanni bought s one hectare in the cru Faset in Barbaresco. In 1967 Pietro (3rd generation) begins to bottle wines under their own label, La Spinona. In 1996 Pietropaolo (5th generation) starts working at La Spinona after achieving a degree in oenology at the local Alba university. He primarily works in the winery and overlooks the sales department while his dad Gualtiero still looks after the vineyards. Over the years Pietropaolo accrues more vineyard holdings in Barbaresco and Barolo.

Today the estate owns 24 hectares of vineyards, primarily in the commune of Barbaresco.

 

VITICULTURE + WINEMAKING 

La Spinona follow a sustainable approach to viticulture : no herbicides are sprayed and they limit the use of pesticides only in rare cases, trying to avoid copper and sulphur sprays. They do a green harvest every year, sometimes twice a year. The manure they spread in the vineyards is sourced from their own Fassona beef cattles. Harvest is entirely manual, in perforated baskets which hold 18 kilos of fruit.

Everything is destemmed, Cold maceration pre ferments (lasting from one to three days) All natural ferments through pied de cuve. Fermentation in stainless steel for 8-10 days with post fermentation of a further one to two weeks for the Cru wines. No new oak used at all, Cru’s aged in large (25 and 40 hectolitres) oak vats (French and Slavonian). Light filtration, No pumps used during bottling.

 

NAME AND LABEL

Spinona is an Italian dog breed, a hunting dog common to the region. Pietro had a Spinona dog called Baica. During a hunting trip Pietro’s son Gualtiero fell into the Tanaro river and Baica saved his life, rescuing him from drowning. As a gesture of gratitude Pietro called the estate La Spinona and designed the labels to represent Baica’s portrait.