Cascina Val Del Prete

CASCINA VAL DEL PRETE

Roero

Priocca (CN), Piedmont

Cascina Val Del Prete has the distinction of being our first Roero based partner and one of the first growers in our portfolio. In 2019, a friend and mentor in the industry told me to go knock on their door and to talk to Nino Roagna - the young son of the family who was starting to run the show.

I was told that Nino not only made true terroir driven wines, but that he was part of a small group of young people working to separate Roero from Barolo and Barbaresco and to bring back its historical reputation. The reality is that Roero is one of the few global regions with the historical record needed to map out a quality hierarchy of vineyards, as was done with recent MGA classifications. This is something to preserve and to defend.

During my visit, we tasted a bottle of 2016 Roero Riserva, from the top slope of the Vigna di Lino vineyard - an amphitheater within the Madonna della Grazie MGA. It was the first Roero wine I experienced that was truly emotional and that I recognized as equal, yet independent, from Barolo and Barbaresco. In 2023, I was fortunate to taste the 2008 Roero Riserva, which is one of the finest bottles of Nebbiolo that I’ve ever had, and I regularly buy Barolo from the greats. 2008 was also Nino’s first year working with his father - he recalled nearly constant rain and cold weather, being amazed at just how fine the wines had become.

What I eventually learned was that Cascina Val Del Prete has long been considered a top tier grower of Roero, and are one of the few to have farmed organically for decades.

Twenty or thirty years ago it wasn’t cool to be a farmer, especially in a more rural place such as Roero. Common logic was to spend as little time in the vineyard as possible - those working naturally and spending more time were suckers, and Nino explained how his father and grandfather were often chastised for working in the way that he did.

Now that I was seeing Roero differently myself, I kept noticing affirmations of my new, yet seemingly rare knowledge - things like well regarded wine shops in NY directly importing Cascina Val Del Prete, and bottles being buried on deep wine lists; easter eggs for a small minority. It all had an insiders “if you know, you know” kind of vibe.

Since we’ve partnered with the Roagna family, we have seen the subtle rebirth of Cascina Val Del Prete with modest adjustments from Nino and his partner Ludovica. Specifically, Arneis is picked a touch earlier in the season and much more concrete is used in the cellar, in place of neutral oak. These have always been ample and intense wines, and remain so, though Nino’s adjustments bring a little more lift to the final package.

Nino has no formal winemaking education, though his partner, Ludovica, does. Even so, the pair work with feel and gut sense as opposed to a more oenologically driven approach - Nino is very vigilant to not let a technical approach creep in.

The cellar philosophy always was, and still is, described as minimalist and traditional. Native yeast fermentations are the standard—this is an address to observe the paradox of long maceration Nebbiolo having greater degrees of grace and nuance.

Their home in Priocca is the part of Roero that is closest to Barbaresco. Here, there is sandy soil, but there is an overall higher concentration of calcareous clay that makes these wines feel closer to Barolo or Barbaresco than to Roero wine from very sandy soil, in say, Canale.

The cantina is at the base of the Madonna della Grazie MGA. Within this area, the family’s primary landholding is a beautiful southwest facing vineyard amphitheater named “Vigna di Lino”. It is mostly Nebbiolo with a touch of Barbera that was planted in the 1970's.

As mentioned, the Riserva is made from the top portion of Vigna di Lino - that sub-parcel that has more sand and receives five hours of additional sunlight per day. The contrast to the regular Vigna di Lino bottling from the lower portion of the slope provides a masterclass in the site specificity of Nebbiolo.

Although the top slope receives more light, ripening is slower because the soil drains faster, yielding a Riserva with a higher degree of length, grace, and transparency - not power.

While Nebbiolo is the most important varietal they work with, Barbera and Arneis do very well on their land.

Notably, they craft as few thousand bottles per year of an Arneis named “Bizzarro”. It’s not that its a weird wine, it just was by the standards when it was first made in 2008. Nino’s father Mario wanted to make an older expression of Arneis that was reminiscent of a time when Arneis was called “White Nebbiolo”, and respected. At the time, and still today, Arneis is seen as an easy cash flow tool. Farming and cellar work are according to this semtiment, resulting in international, uninteresting wines.

Bizzarro is simply Arneis fermented in neutral tonneaux, with 7-8 days maceration. It’s then racked to another neutral tonneaux where it rests on the fine lees and sees light battonage before being bottled without fining or filtration.

Bizzarro is full of character and texture. It is powerful as it is picked a little later than average and comes from red clay soil, although the acidity is always balanced and the wine retains lift. It’s a unique wine that is not to be missed, for those interested in the intrinsic qualities of Arneis.