Elio Altare

Barrique in the old cellar

The barrique marks the argument in wood. Elio Altare, winemaker at Elio Altare in La Morra, works from a Frazione Annunziata estate whose modern voice began with that choice: smaller barrels, less weight, a Burgundian pull toward line and balance. The family bought the farmhouse in 1948, when Giuseppe Altare came from Dogliani and the holding included 5 hectares of Nebbiolo, Barbera, and Dolcetto, with peach, hazelnut, and apple trees still part of the farm economy. Elio’s formation later included Le Serbet in Burgundy, and the lesson returned with force after his January 1976 trip there. In the 1970s, he cut down fruit trees and broke with the old wooden tanks, setting the cellar toward barriques and a cleaner extraction than the heavy Barolo model around him. Giovanni Altare, his father, rejected the change; the rift lasted until Giovanni died in 1985. Elio then worked to buy back the winery and vineyards from his siblings. Since 2003, his place at the estate has been described as winemaker, inside a house still shaped by that early discipline and by the memory of land worked by hand.

Ten hectares under sustainable work

The method begins outside, across about 10 hectares farmed by the family on the La Morra side of Barolo, with an annual production of around 70,000 bottles. Nebbiolo carries the central load, supported by Dolcetto, Barbera, and Cabernet Sauvignon. The estate’s stated position is sustainable work with minimal chemical use, a practical vineyard regime rather than a decorative claim. In the cellar, the defining move remains the barrel program. Altare replaced the older large-wood habit with barriques, then used that decision to pull the wines away from extraction as an end in itself. Fermentation and aging serve a narrower aim: keep the fruit articulate, keep the tannin in order, and let site stay legible. The named wines make that discipline visible. Barolo DOCG Arborina, Barolo DOCG Cannubi, Barolo DOCG Brunate, Barolo DOCG Unoperuno, and Barolo Riserva DOCG Cerretta Vigna Bricco each returns to a specific piece of ground, not to a general idea of Barolo. The work asks patience from the hands before it asks patience from the bottle.

Frazione Annunziata below the rows

The cellar sits in Frazione Annunziata, on the La Morra shoulder of the Barolo zone, with vineyards close enough to keep the place from feeling separate from its farming. The tasting room is not the point of the house; the working cellar and the rows around it give the estate its scale. The atmosphere is quiet, family-run, and hillside-bound. Barrels, concrete, glass, and vineyard dust do more of the talking than display does. Altare’s own language stays close to labor: “I am a farmer; when I was twenty, I was still plowing the land with an ox among the rows. I knew the hardships of the past. I learned to respect the land and the work in this way.” That sentence explains the room better than polish could. The cellar holds the argument, and Arborina is one of its clearest nouns.