Roagna: Producer profile & 11 wines tasted

An old, worn wooden stool appears from the darkness of the cellar, upon which Luca Roagna arranges a perfectly rinsed pair of Zalto Burgundy glasses, a corkscrew and a glass spittoon. Then he walks through the tunnels of the cellar in search of the latest vintages of his prestigious crus, yet to be released: the 2016 and the 2006 Riserva; an outstanding combination.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 11 new Roagna releases

No label, no capsule, no DOCG strip. Not yet at least. Only the corks marked with the vintage and the vineyard name allow us to identify the wines, illuminated by a spotlight which makes the old stool appear as if an altar.

This is the austere, respectful, passionate and consistent style of Roagna, a family estate of rural origins now in its fourth generation with Luca at the helm, preceded by his father Alfredo, and his father before him, Giovanni, and dating back to Vincenzo and Rosa who at the end of the last century were among the first ever to produce Barbaresco.

Access to the estate is almost hidden below the road to Castiglione Falletto by Rocche di Castiglione’s steep vineyards. The last cru vinified at the estate, 2016 marks its inaugural release.

Roagna’s vineyards

Roagna owns or manages some of the top MGA of both Barolo and Barbaresco, including Pira (a monopole of the estate, whose ‘Vecchie Viti’ parcel was last planted in 1937), Pajé (purchased in 1953), Asili (purchased in 1961), Montefico (purchased in 1929) and the famed Crichet-Pajé. The age of these vineyards helps to explain the historical depth of this winery.

‘The authenticity of each unique expression comes from small differences in the subsoil. It is easy to understand how a fifty-year-old grapevine with roots growing down into many different sedimentary layers can draw unique nutrients and trace specific elements that give that vine distinct characteristics,’ says Luca.

These MGAs all share a common denominator of elegance, the style of the vineyards matched with a fiercely traditional winemaking style for the Nebbiolo grape, intended to produce powerful wines meant for the long haul. This, in my opinion, is the Roagna ‘equation’ for the outstanding quality of their wines.

There are, however, several other details which Luca Roagna considered the essence of his viticulture and winemaking. ‘I embrace the idea of the forest. Where all creatures living in the vineyard are allowed to play a unique role in the biodiversity of the terroir,’ he says. Roagna manages a total of 20 hectares of land of which 12ha are planted to vines. ‘We believe in allowing a completely natural cover crop without any mowing, which allows for many varieties of plants to coexist.’

The soil of the vineyards around the cellar in Barolo has barely been touched since 2001. It is not fertilised, and the winery promotes the idea of ‘lazy vines’: ‘We believe that the beauty of a wine begins with a concert played by thousands of unique grapevines, where each individual vine interprets their own personal subsoil.’ Luca uses a massal selection, but 10 years ago he also began trials replanting using seeds from an old vineyard.

Harvest time is dictated by the ripeness of the seeds. ‘When the seeds are mature, the grapes are mature: never before, never after. The seeds should be brown, woody and crispy.’ One-hundred kilograms of grapes are picked before the harvest for a pied de cuvée, which provides the indigenous yeasts for the fermentation.

In the cellar

The crushing is very gentle. ‘We don’t want to extract the green part of the grapes, so we prefer a kind of long infusion with which we could achieve all the complexity of Nebbiolo.’ The post-fermentation maceration lasts as long as two to three months, using the submerged-cap technique in neutral, untoasted oak vessels.

Luca ages his wine for at least two (Barolo) and three (Barbaresco) years longer than the minimum required by law, for a total of between five and eight years, depending on the wine. After maceration, his wines mature for between 30 and 48 months in the neutral oak barrels before being racked off to concrete tanks for the final stage of maturation. They are then bottled, with low levels of sulphur, no fining and no filtration.

Now Luca Roagna is ready to sell his 2016s from both appellations, plus his flagship long-aged Crichet Pajé Barbaresco, which is now on the 2013 vintage, and his Pira Riserva, now on the 2006 vintage. The name is derived from the Piemontese for ‘little hill’. Pajé is a south-southwest-facing vineyard, and the soil contains a particularly high content of calcareous marl and active limestone in the Crichet Pajé portion of the hill.

Along with his top bottlings (don’t underestimate Pajé ‘Vecchie Viti’ 2016, or Pira Riserva 2006), these great vineyards also provide the fruit for Luca Roagna’s ‘best buys’. His Langhe Rosso is made with two-thirds Pira and one-third Pajé, partially obtained from the press wine from his top wines – although his use of long macerations means there is not much press wine available. He produces around 10,000 bottles of Langhe Rosso at a relatively affordable price.

There is also a hidden gem produced by Luca Roagna: a Timorasso. His latest 2015 vintage is quite ripe, but the 2014 is an exceptional example of the tight minerality this rare white grape can achieve.

Roagna’s wines are sometimes criticised for a lack of precision, but Luca and his team have demonstrated their ability to make fine, ageable wines fiercely expressive of their surroundings while serving as one of the best examples of post-modern winemaking in the Langhe.

Roagna new releases tasted and rated:

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