Produttori del Barbaresco
Appellations
History
The cooperative's roots go back to 1894, when Domizio Cavazza, headmaster of the Royal Oenological School of Alba and a landowner in Barbaresco, organized nine local growers into the Cantine Sociali di Barbaresco. That cooperative is generally credited as the first to bottle and label a wine simply as 'Barbaresco,' helping establish the village's wine as distinct from neighboring Barolo. It did not survive the economic pressures and political climate of the interwar period and closed in the 1920s-30s.
The idea was revived in September 1958 by Don Fiorino Marengo, the parish priest of Barbaresco, who brought together nineteen small grape-growing families to re-found the cooperative as Produttori del Barbaresco, in the hope of giving struggling smallholders a way to pool resources and improve the quality and market position of their wine. The first vintages were vinified in the basement of the parish rectory before a permanent winery building was completed around 1960-61.
Produttori del Barbaresco remains a growers' cooperative rather than a family estate: member families farm their own plots and deliver grapes to the shared winery, which vinifies and ages the wine communally. Since 1982 the cooperative has bottled single-vineyard Riservas from nine historic crus (Asili, Moccagatta/Muncagota, Montefico, Montestefano, Ovello, Paje, Pora, Rabaja, and Rio Sordo) sourced from its members' best-sited holdings, but only in vintages judged strong enough for all nine; in weaker years the cooperative releases only its blended Barbaresco and Langhe Nebbiolo. A tenth Riserva, a blend named Don Fiorino in honor of the founding priest, was introduced more recently, combining fruit from the nine crus with other prized Barbaresco sites.