Think Piedmont, think Nebbiolo – the Italian region’s flagship grape variety usually grabs all the headlines. But the team behind the Tenuta Il Finale winery is taking a different tack and instead wants to shine a spotlight on Piedmont’s other native varieties, including Barbera, Dolcetto, and Arneis.
Tenuta Il Finale was founded in 2021 by Englishman David Mogford, Belgian Vincent Cobbaert, and Italian Luca Boetti. For the three friends, their winery is the 'finale' on a journey that’s spanned decades, forged through a friendship that grew from their business meetings, and intertwined with their appreciation for food, history, and people.
Costigliole d’Asti – the 'capital of Barbera'.
They recognise that wine is seldom a standalone pleasure; it’s tied into the wider worlds of art, music, and gastronomy, which bring people together. That’s why hospitality is no mere afterthought, but is instead at the heart of the winery, fulfilling David’s original dream for 'Il Finale' – of cooking, hosting, and sharing his own wines and philosophy with guests who become friends.
The three founders also know that wine is inseparable from its surroundings. Rather than following trends, they are choosing to focus on what makes the wines crafted from the local varieties special – their freshness and their balance.
Less intervention in the vineyards and the winery
That freshness begins in the estate’s seven hectares spread across four vineyards close to its cellar at Costigliole d’Asti, often called ‘the capital of Barbera’. The vines are between 45 and 90 years old, with the winery taking part in international old vines conferences to engage with the protection of such rare and valuable plants.
Tenuta Il Finale is taking a low-intervention approach in its vineyards, with no chemical weeding, only hand harvesting, and careful vineyard management, all aimed at promoting biodiversity. This approach allows the local Barbera, Dolcetto, and Arneis varieties to express the characteristics gained from the steep, limestone-rich slopes, with their natural drainage and excellent exposure to sunlight.
Barbera vines at harvest time.
Capturing those characteristics in the bottles involves taking a low-intervention approach in the winery too – winemakers Cesare and Luigi aim to capture the nuance from each parcel of grapes. While oak cask fermentation is used selectively for certain wines, the estate has also developed an important strand of its production focused entirely on stainless-steel vinification. These wines – including Dolcetto, a recent Decanter World Wine Awards silver medal winner – are crafted without oak influence, highlighting the purity, freshness and natural aromatics of the fruit. This approach has become one of Tenuta Il Finale’s distinctive achievements, and reflects a growing international interest in vibrant, terroir-driven styles.
Barbera’s potential for ageing is recognised
The star of the show is Tenuta Il Finale’s Barbera, which Masters of Wine have singled out as having aging potential, thanks to its depth and structure. The winery’s founders believe Barbera could take its place alongside Piedmont’s great Barolo wines, forged from Nebbiolo.
The Tenuta Il Finale range.
Dolcetto is sometimes dismissed as a more modest wine, but in Tenuta Il Finale’s cellar it receives the same seriousness and care as Barbera. With the right precision and balance, the winemaking team believes Dolcetto is ideally placed to take a bow in international markets, satisfying wine lovers who are looking for bottles with freshness that tell a story about the vineyards from which they hail.
Even though Tenuta Il Finale is still in the early stages of its journey, its wines are already starting to turn heads, including a bronze medal at last year’s Decanter World Wine Awards for its 2023 Barbera d’Asti. The judges praised the wine for being ‘lifted and aromatic, with a palate of dark plum, blackberry, rounded tannins and a juicy acidity’. David, one of the winery’s founders, commented: ‘This is wonderful news for our first year entry, I am so very, very proud.’
Discover more about Tenuta Il Finale: www.tenutailfinale.com
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