|
 The small, boutique winery in Castiglione Falletto in the heart of Langhe, one of the Barolo producing zones, having 40 hA of its own land and owning vineyards in different locations, produces only 250,000 bottles but its wines are coveted because of excellent quality, so much so that it exports 70% of the production to the US which is its biggest market from where the Krause Family owning chain of supermarkets has bought the winery.
The news is expected to send shockwaves in Barolo as it has been a winery that the conservative people of Barolo are proud of. The wines might be expensive but are truly iconic and coveted by connoisseurs and collectors alike. It was also a profit-making company.
The young winemaker Francesco Cordero, son of Mario Cordero and a member of the fifth generation owning and running the boutique winery was in India exactly 3 years ago visiting Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi where Vishal Kadakia of Wine Park, the Indian importer since 2008, had hosted a dinner with their wines at OTW Restaurant. Roero Arneis, Barbera d’Alba, Barbaresco Masseria and Barolo Castiglione were served at the dinner and were really loved and appreciated by the invitees. The event was also reported by delWine.
Though Wine Park sells a small quantity of the portfolio-mostly Barbera d’Alba, Kadakia was also shocked to learn about the news in Decanter. Chatting with Francesco, he was assured that there will be no change in the working of the company. Both his uncle Luca (whose sister is married to Francesco’s father Mario) and Mario will remain at the helm of affairs and he will also continue to be the winemaker.
‘Our family has the utmost respect for what they and their families have built over five generations and do not plan to change anything,’ said Kyle Krause, who has Italian roots and loves Barolo wines.
Vietti is currently run by his uncle Luca Corrado, CEO and winemaker and his father Mario Cordero, who is a Director and looks after the marketing and sales. ‘We are proud to be farmers. Earlier our family sold grapes. First vintage from the family was released over 100 years ago in 1911 with the Vietti label,’ he says. Before that they sold grapes for about 40 years. Incidentally, he felt that Barolo was a notch above Barbaresco since it aged better - 20 to 25 years while the feminine Barbaresco was expected to age for 15 years with softer tannins and which is more elegant and feminine.
Luca Corrado is a well respected winemaker who is also a consultant winemaker for the Tuscan iconic winery Querciabella whose Export Manager Giorgio Fragiacomo was in Delhi last week. The decision has been kept so much under wraps that even he was shocked when he heard the news.
Albeisa – Vietti has been a loyal member of Albeisa - the organization of traditional Piedmonts’ wine producers all of whom use a typical shaped patented bottle. As Francesco proudly says , ‘from the very beginning, his comments-‘we are chained to our territory’ explain in simple and lucid terms their respect for the terroir and tradition.
Artist Labels
Since 1982, the company has been using labels designed by local artists who are friends of the family. These are local artist friends who were inspired by the vintage and the wine and draw a painting which the winery uses on all the labels, unlike like Mouton-Rothschild where only the chateau wine has a label by an artiste.
This Krause family’s second winery acquisition was also in Piedmont last year when they purchased Canale d'Alba-based Enrico Serafino from Gruppo Campari in June 2015.
Franceso says…
As an answer to the query raised by me, Francesco gave a detailed explanation about the deal which he believes is a great opportunity for Vietti to build one of the unique reality in the wine panorama.
‘Two years ago we tried to purchase a winery called Enrico Serafino thinking it was a good idea for the expansion of our big family. Uunfortunately, the “Krause family” was quicker than us and bought the property. During the last two years their passion for the Barolo region drove them to acquire some of the most important single vineyards cru of the Barolo region. They have been able to collect 12 hectares (28 acres) as Mosconi and Bricco Ravera, two among the most important crus of Monforte, Codana, in Castiglione Falletto (neighboring Monprivato ,years ago was included in the Monprivato and vinified by Brovia), Briccolina and Meriame in Serralunga, two top crus of Serralunga plus other interesting positions as Teodoro, Le Coste, and Le Liste.’
 Continuing with the story, Francesco adds, ‘a few months ago Kyle Krause approached us to know if we were interested in doing something together. We thought immediately this could have been a great opportunity for Vietti. You know how we love vineyard lands and we trust that this is the base of the quality in our region. We started thinking which one of these vineyards could be a cru Barolo and offer great opportunity for a new scenario of the Barolo Castiglione/Perbacco. We believed we could create a unique and unrepeatable quality portfolio for our Barolo.’
After spending a long time together, we realized that we had many common points with Krause family in terms of quality, heritage and ambition and the family decided to start a “long trip” together allowing Krause Family to be part of our history.’
Nothing will change; everybody will continue to do exactly the same. We agreed with Krause family to have 100% power and freedom to do whatever we need to do for the best. The common intention is not to make one bottle more than today but to select the best from this patrimony of Crus to make better and better quality and with a long term project of very interesting investment. We are sure we will be no other winery which will be able to make so many different Crus of the best Barolo.’
He concludes by saying that nothing will change with Vishal as an excellent partner. And of course, no disclosure of the financial details of the deal.
For more information about the winery , please visit http://www.vietti.com/en/
For earlier article please click Visit from Vietti: Winemaker from Barolo and Barbaresco
Subhash Arora |