Gianfranco Alessandria Barolo 2019

Gianfranco Alessandria is a beautiful little estate built on tiny plots in San Giovanni, nestled among some of Monforte d’Alba’s best-known Crus. Gianfranco Alessandria and his family made classic Barolo, Barbera, and Dolcetto.

Their boutique winery is and always has been family-run, dating back to when Gianfranco’s father started growing grapes in the 1940s. After his passing in 1986, Gianfranco took over the family’s four hectares in Monforte d’Alba and worked to reducing his yields, encouraging better ripening and healthier, higher-quality grapes. He didn’t sell any wine in his first few years, but at the urging of his cousin Mauro Veglio, he began bottling some in the late 80s. He eventually released his first Barolo in 1993, and it immediately earned critical acclaim.

After building a modern winery in 1996 and slowly amassing a couple more hectares in the region, the Alessandria family still does nearly all the work. The quartet of Gianfranco, his wife Bruna, and their two daughters Marta and Vittoria handle everything from vinification to bottling. With an infusion of fresh ideas from Vittoria and Marta, the estate remains decidedly family-run, and continues to craft wines of elegance, complexity, and age-worthiness. They make really big, beautiful Barolos that have a lot of alcohol, but layers and layers of fruit that pair with floral notes, a hint of fresh tobacco, cocoa and some dried herbs.