Scarpa 'Briccomora' Barbera d’Asti DOCG 2023

At the turn of the century (1900), Antonio and Ernestina Scarpa started Stabilimento Enologico Scarpa, a winery specializing in bottling and marketing local wines. They nurtured an ambitious dream: to produce the best Barbera they could make in the heart of the most suitable region, unveiling the potential for evolution of a wine that was underestimated up until then. Meticulous and perfectionists, deeply in love with their land, they devoted their lives to the pursuit of quality. Antonio and his wife are still remembered to this day for their deep knowledge of Monferrato vineyards, where they selected the best grapes for Barbera Riserva wines.

They invested in barrels for the aging of red wines, but also in technology for the production of Metodo Classico sparkling wines, Vermouth and liqueurs. At the height of the 1930s, Scarpa was acknowledged as one of the most renowned wineries in Piedmont. The first vintage of Barolo was bottled in 1940 and opened the doors of the company to another highly suitable territory: the Langhe. This is the historical explanation why Scarpa is still allowed to bottle Barolo outside of the boundaries of the denomination: an exception established by the disciplinary.

In 1949, Antonio did not have heirs and was close to retirement: he then decided to sell the winery to Mario Pesce, a young producer from Nizza Monferrato who Antonio deeply respected and considered as a friend. Pesce shared Antonio’s ambition: he had studied in Burgundy and Alsace and had returned home to experiment the techniques he learned abroad on local wines such as selective harvests, thinning of the bunches, separate vinifications and delicate aging in large barrels. But more than anything else, Mario Pesce yearned for a winemaking style that would value the longevity, elegance and territorial identity of his wines, thus enabling them to stand alongside the most renowned international labels.

Mario Pesce’s unyielding attention to quality went beyond the confines of the winery and became a symbol for the territory. During the years when the first Italian wine Denominations were coming to life (1963-1992), he was president of the Commissione per l’elevazione della qualità dei vini Astigiani (lit. Commission for the improvement of the quality of Asti wines), thus helping in bringing investment and capital to Monferrato for the improvement of agronomic, winemaking and aging techniques.

Mario Pesce perfected the shape of Scarpa bottles. Influenced by Antonio’s old drawings, he designed a slightly tapered 75-cl bottle. He drew inspiration from Magnum bottles, which have longer necks that allow better exchange between wine and oxygen. The new bottle was perfect for wines for aging and is still a distinctive trait of the company.

Mario Pesce had no children and welcomed his nephew Carlo Castino to the winery: the latter had just finished his studies at the Scuola Enologica di Alba, the most important of its kind in Italy at the time.

Castino first became Pesce’s right-hand man and, later, the director of wine production. In 1969, he had the intuition to acquire the company’s most important estate, Poderi Bricchi: a spectacular 25-hectare single-body vineyard found between Castel Rocchero and Acqui Terme. Owning Poderi Bricchi meant being fully responsible for the quality of the wines, interpreting the variable expressions of the seasons and controlling the entire chain, from the vineyard to the table.

Starting in 1974, Carlo Castino produced the first outstanding vintages of La Bogliona, an exceptional Barbera d’Asti that would become the embodiment of Scarpa’s philosophy. La Bogliona represents the realization of Antonio Scarpa’s dream. Castino was also behind the progressive zoning of Poderi Bricchi, with the planting of local varieties such as Freisa, Ruchè, Dolcetto, Brachetto and Timorasso. Carlo Castino, who retired in 2007, still lives in a small private home located above the historic Scarpa cellars with his wife Rita.

His heir is Silvio Trinchero, an enologist who professionally flourished at the historical “Scarpa school”. Longevity, Piedmontese identity and respect for varietal expression remain the cornerstones of winemaking at Scarpa, enriched by new and important acquisitions.