I was fortunate to attend a complete vertical tasting of Guido Rivella’s Barbaresco Montestefano, courtesy of Ultravino, his UK importer. Ultravino is doing a great job finding hands-on winemakers producing small volumes of really high-quality wines from Piemonte. It has been impossible to visit every important winery for my forthcoming book on The Wines of Piemonte in the Classic Wine Library. As a result, it was a bonus to meet Guido Rivella in London.
Who is Guido Rivella and why is he important?
Guido Rivella worked for Angelo Gaja for 45 years as a winemaker and was a major part of Gaja’s huge critical and commercial success. Gaja put Barbaresco on the fine wine map, massively raising the profile of Piemonte. When Rivella ‘retired’, he returned to his family business and started his own micro-winery as part of the family’s agriturismo (bed and breakfast) business. The business is now in his daughter’s name, Silvia Rivella, but on the wine side, there is no doubt that Guido is the driving force. The venture started in 2010 when just 3,400 bottles were made; today it remains small at around 17,000 bottles from 3.5 hectares of vineyard. For the sake of comparison, Gaja’s production is said to be around 300,000 bottles.
The Montestefano vineyard
Rivella’s most important vineyard is Montestefano in the municipality of Barbaresco itself. (Technically, it is a sub-zone, an MGA, not a single vineyard, but that’s a subject for another day.) He has two parcels in the vineyard. There is the original parcel with 40-year-old vines and a new parcel which was replanted in 2014, Nebbiolo replacing Dolcetto. The former parcel has a great mix of Nebbiolo clones, giving the wines a natural complexity. The latter parcel was planted with one selected Barolo clone from La Morra. Michet CVT 71 produces small berries with a good depth of colour and low yields. Its yields are rather unpredictable and so is only for the super committed. However, it does produce wines of high concentration and ageing potential. This holding (0.37 hectares) produces just 1,000–2,000+ bottles, depending on the generosity of the vintage.
These tiny numbers underline what a privilege it was to taste all the vintages of Guido Rivella’s Barbaresco Montestefano from 2011–2019. To complete the picture, we also tasted the standard Barbaresco 2010 and 2012 when the fruit from the Montestefano vineyard went into that wine (the wine made with grapes from a number of Barbaresco vineyards). In 2010 the winery was not really set up for single-vineyard production. In 2012 Rivella did not believe that the quality was the right level for a single-vineyard wine.
How good are the wines? And which are the best years?
Most readers will primarily be interested in how good these vintages of Guido Rivella’s Barbaresco Montestefano are. Overall, they were of a very high standard indeed. However, the great interest of a vertical tasting is the way in which quality varies according to vintage. And, of course, we all want to know which were the stand-out vintages. The last question is simple to answer. In my opinion, 2014, 2016 and 2019 really stood out for the intensity of the aromas, one of Nebbiolo’s most important features, and the refined nature of their tannins. That 2016 was outstanding will surprise no one who follows the Langhe wine scene. 2019 is being heralded as another great vintage. The real surprise was 2014 which was the wettest year since 2002 and widely considered not very good. But in general, Barbaresco was much better than Barolo in that year (it was said to have 25 per cent less rain). Rivella recounted that a decent September saved an otherwise dreary year. But even he said that the quality of the 2014 vintage was the biggest surprise of his professional life, which has spanned more than half a century.
The 2014 showed a good depth of ruby colour on the turn towards garnet. It has remarkable concentration with layers of sour red cherry, stone and smoke notes. The tannins are ripe and elegant and, eight years after the vintage, are beginning to resolve. The excellent fruit concentration, balanced by acidity and tannin, indicates that this could age positively for 15-20 years.
On the fringes of the tasting, I was able to get some winemaking detail from the humble and amiable Guido Rivella. As any winemaker would say, for him the most important factor for quality is to bring fully ripe and healthy fruit into the winery. While he emphasised that he has no standard approach to winemaking, he did say that the most important thing he learnt at Gaja was that quality comes first, no matter the cost.
Softly does it, an approach to winemaking
More specifically, in the warm years which have become the new normal, Guido Rivella’s approach is to be as gentle as possible with the fruit. The young wine is subject to rack and return only in the first one or two days of fermentation and certainly not once there is alcohol in the must. (This is because alcohol releases the tannins from the pips and skins.) After that, he handles the cap by good old-fashioned gentle manual punch downs. (Of course, this is possible in a small winery, not on a Gaja scale.) The total time on the skins is around three weeks. Malolactic fermentation takes place in wood and normally before the wine is racked to barrique for ageing.
The word barrique may set a few alarm bells ringing but not one of these wines had any overt oak flavours. (Here there is a point of difference between his wines and those of this former employer, however subtly it is done.) In fact, Rivella bought his first barriques from Gaja and they were all at least three years old. This meant there was virtually no oak flavour as such. He has since bought some new barriques but the mix is always towards older wood. For him, the barrique is a convenient size in a small winery that wants to make small-batch wines and vinify each plot separately. And there is another reason why 225 litres is the preferred size here: it is the only size that will go through the door into the winery. We tend to forget practical considerations like this!
Barbaresco Marcorino, the new kid on the block
The big news at Rivella is that they have a new single vineyard wine, Barbaresco Marcorino, from the nearby municipality of Neive. The vineyard is currently rented but the really exciting thing is the age of the vines which averages around 70 years. Because of their age, they are inevitably a mix of old clones, again adding complexity. The final two wines of the evening were a side-by-side comparison of 2019 wines from Montestefano and Marcorino. There is a great deal of similarity between the two sites. The altitude of the two vineyards is almost identical. Montestefano is a slightly sunnier site as it is fully south facing. The big difference is in the soils. Montestefano has blue clay and marl, heavier soils that retain water, resulting in wines with more body and structure. By contrast, Marcorino is sandier and the soil is poorer. As a result, the wines are slightly lighter-bodied with more finesse and fine tannins. As these two wines age, they could become textbook examples of how small differences can be reflected in the wine in your glass.
Overall, these rare wines, Guido Rivella’s Barbaresco Montestefano and his other wines are really worth seeking out. In comparison to Barolo, they have the naturally lighter weight of Barbaresco and have moderate alcohol levels. However, the beautifully precise fruit expression, the elegant tannins and their overall balance really make them stand out.
