The winemaker · Barolo, La Morra and Serralunga d’Alba, Piemonte, Italy
Cristina Prandi
A historic Barolo name, brought back to the bottle by the family’s youngest winemaker.
- Region
- Barolo, La Morra and Serralunga d’Alba, Piemonte, Italy
- Style
- Traditional Langhe reds: Dolcetto, Langhe Nebbiolo and Barolo.
- Vineyard
- Nebbiolo in Paiagallo, Bricco Cogni and Terlo; old Dolcetto vines in Gianetto, Serralunga d’Alba.
- Farming
- Organic farming, without certification. Hand-picked.
- Winemaking
- Spontaneous fermentation in concrete, then large oak. Unfined and unfiltered, with a small sulphur addition at bottling.
- Signature
- Fresh fruit, floral lift and a fine tannic line.
The wines
Wines from Cristina Prandi
The story
How she got here
Cristina Prandi put her family’s name back on a label with the 2019 vintage, at 20. She had begun working alongside her uncle Giuseppe in 2015, after years in which he kept farming but no longer bottled. Today she makes wine from three and a half hectares with a team of three. Dolcetto from Serralunga, Langhe Nebbiolo from La Morra and Barolo share the same cellar approach: spontaneous fermentation in concrete, large oak, no fining or filtration.
The family has made wine in the village of Barolo since the 1860s, when Teobaldo Prandi opened his cellar on Piazza Cabutto. For generations it passed to the eldest son.
In 1987 it passed to Giuseppe, a painter living in England, who came home to look after the vines.
“I have a visceral bond with my land. For me it’s the first step in making wine: belonging to a place, and continuing a story that is much more than a family one.”
CRISTINA PRANDI
The place
BAROLO, LA MORRA & SERRALUNGA
Paiagallo is a historic vineyard just outside the village of Barolo, surrounded by fruit trees and olive trees. In La Morra, Bricco Cogni and Terlo sit on the hill behind Monvigliero, looking towards Verduno. All the Barolo vines are old.
Bricco Cogni is Sant’Agata marl with more sand and some Diano sandstone: a cooler, poorer soil than in Barolo, and it shows as spice and freshness. Its lower, sandier part becomes her Langhe Nebbiolo.
The Dolcetto comes from Gianetto in Serralunga d’Alba, one of the last Dolcetto vineyards left there. The vines are old, the rows have only ever been worked by hand, and the woods around them keep the grapes cool.
In the glass
How the wines feel
- 01
Unvarnished
Concrete, old wood, no fining or filtration: fruit, texture and place.
- 02
Fresh
Fresh acidity and clear fruit, with structure that leaves room for the perfume.
- 03
Rooted
Classic Langhe grapes and methods: nothing reinvented, just done carefully.
For the nerds
For the nerds
Cristina treats every wine the same way, on purpose: same fermentation, same two vessels, concrete and large oak. Change the cellar from one wine to the next, she says, and you lose the terroir. Only the time changes.
Keep reading
Grapes are picked by hand into small crates, destemmed and crushed, then fermented in concrete with their own yeasts. Nothing is added to start fermentation. The Dolcetto and the Langhe Nebbiolo then rest in large oak. The Barolos macerate with a submerged cap and age in large oak, with a last stretch in concrete before bottling.
The Langhe Nebbiolo is declassified by choice. It comes from the lower, sandier part of Bricco Cogni, which gives a less austere wine than she wants for Barolo.
Sulphur goes in once, at bottling, and in small amounts. No fining, no filtration. The vineyards have always been farmed organically, without certification.
What she is after are wines that change in the glass: shy at first, more open by the end of the bottle. Not wines that say everything the moment you pull the cork.
“For me there’s nothing worse than a wine that stands still.”