TENUTA RONCAGLIA - BARBARESCO, Roncaglie

A total 13 hectares, 8 of which under vine, in one of Barbaresco’s most beautiful and scenic areas, easily identifiable from afar on the hilltop.
The place name, Roncaglie, derives from the Latin “Roncaleis” (indeed, it was a Roman settlement) meaning uphill road; it is located in the southern part of the municipality of Barbaresco, at the start of a crest that rises from Barbaresco to Treiso, 5km from Alba.
The property lends its name to the locality and accounts for the bulk of it (roughly 70%).

This area has always been renowned for the excellence of the grapes grown there, from which a fine Barbaresco is made. This is one of the Langhe area’s “historical crus”, as Lorenzo Frattini stated, back in 1880, in his Monograph on Viticulture and Oenology in the Province of Cuneo. Much more recently, Allessandro Masnaghetti reports in his Map of Barbaresco Crus that: “the Roncaglie site, along with Roncagliette, is one of the best to be found on the hillside that starts from Roccalini and rises up towards Treiso”. And to quote Daniel Thomases, writing in the January 1995 issue of Wine Spectator: “Roncaglie is acknowledged to be one of the best sites in the whole of Barbaresco.”

Roncaglie has been one of the Barbaresco sub-areas demarcated and officially regulated since the 2007 harvest.

The Vineyards

The altitude ranges from 240 to 280 metres above sea level.
Exposure: mainly south, south-west and west facing.

Nebbiolo: the majorityof the vines were planted in 1969 and 1980, the rest in 1995 and 2000.
Barbera: part of the vineyard was replanted in 1995 and in 2005 (with massal selection from the old vines and grafting onto 420/A rootstock, which is not fast-growing and is extremely compatible with the soil and the Barbera variety); the rest dates back to 1930.
Vines per hectare: 3,500/5,000.

New planting

In 2008 a new vineyard of Riesling of 0,4 Ha has been planted in the place of the Chardonnay vineyard: it will start to produce in 2012.