Oddero, Nebbiolo, Langhe, Piedmont, Italy 2022

100% Nebbiolo from the Bricco San Biagio vineyard in La Morra

This is an amazing, elegant and perfumed Langhe Nebbiolo made entirely from Barolo-zoned fruit, offering tremendous quality and value.

The soil at San Biagio is dry and very sandy. Farming practices are organic. The grapes are hand-harvested in the first part of October from 15 to 20 year old vines. Fermented in stainless steel, the wine is then aged one year in large, neutral oak followed by at least a few months in the bottle before release.

Oddero is one of the great, historic, traditional Barolo houses with a long history spanning over 200 years. There are mentions of the Oddero family in La Morra as far back as the 1700s, though the family was likely there even before that point. The winery was among the first producers to estate bottle their Barolo – in the late 1800s, a time when most wine was sold in bulk. It was Giacomo Oddero (born 1926) and his brother Luigi (born 1928) who brought the winery into the modern era.

Giacomo’s daughter Mariacristina joined the winery in 1997, but after a few years, she and Luigi – both very strong-headed characters – decided to separate. She kept the historic cellars in La Morra and much of the historic vineyards, and he formed his own winery in 2006, called Luigi Oddero e Figli. Mariacristina’s son Pietro and niece Isabella have taken over and represent the seventh generation in the family to run the winery.

Today, there are few estates in Barolo with as impressive a lineup of vineyard holdings as Oddero.