Anna Maria Abbona

Labels, vines, and the same return

The label still begins with proportion and line. Anna Maria Abbona, winemaker at Anna Maria Abbona in Farigliano, brought a graphic designer’s eye back to the family farm in 1989, then changed the medium from paper to vineyard, cellar, and bottle. The decision came when her father was preparing to sell the vineyards during a hard period for local grape growers. Abbona left design, returned with her husband Franco, and took on the work of wine business operator and producer at the house that carries her name. She remains in that post today. The lineage is agricultural before it is commercial: family land, repeated seasons, and the long work of keeping a place in production. Abbona states the premise plainly: “Our farming roots are the prerequisite and background of everything we do: wine is just one facet of our family’s deep attachment to the land, which has become a true way of life.” At this address, that sentence reads less like a motto than a cellar note, tying the hand to the hill before any wine reaches the tasting room.

High hills, organic rows

The program rests on organic viticulture in the high-altitude Langhe hills around Farigliano, with vineyards ranging from 500 to 550 meters. The estate farms 18 hectares, including steep slopes and soils described across white, brown, and red profiles, with blue stones in many areas. Dolcetto remains central here, particularly through Dogliani DOCG, but Abbona’s bench is broader than a single local register. Nascetta, Riesling, Barbera, Nebbiolo, Barolo, and Alta Langa all sit within the house’s range, along with still red, still white, and sparkling work. One parcel, Maioli, is the old vineyard plot that has been converted to organic farming. Another part of the holding is 10 hectares of Dolcetto, Barbera, and Nebbiolo divided into 10 plots. The cellar uses modern equipment without letting the method drift from tradition and grape variety. Abbona’s own words set the discipline: “Our project: to make wine in a conscientious way, paying strict attention to tradition and nature, once again valuing craftsmanship and the expression of the grape variety in its land of choice.”

A quiet room above the rows

The tasting room keeps the scale close. It looks out over vineyard vistas rather than over a staged hospitality floor, and the quiet suits wines built from altitude, soil, and the measured pace of farming. In the glass, the room can move from Dolcetto’s direct line to the lift of Nascetta or Riesling, then toward Nebbiolo, Barolo DOCG, or Alta Langa Rosé Clara. Nothing in the setting asks to be louder than the hill. The cellar’s work is carried by small decisions, which parcel to read first, which grape to let stand alone, which label to draw around the wine rather than over it. A second location in Monforte d’Alba opened in July 2024, but the Farigliano house remains the rooted point of the practice, with Maioli still holding the oldest vineyard name on the table.