Roagna

Roagna is a family completely immersed in the very history of Barbaresco: the ancestors Vincenzo and Rosa were producing, with their home grown grapes, red wine in the historic center of the town even before that fateful year 1870 to which dates the oldest mention on the label linking the town to its wine. Grandparents Giovanni and Maria Candida, born in 1912 and 1915, would be the protagonists of the purchase of the historic Cascina Pajè in 1953: it was the first chapter in a long series of years of mass selections that would lead to the 1978 Barbaresco Crichet Pajè, the winery's most important wine, vinified from a single vineyard. It was two other siblings, Alfredo and Luigina, who added another historic piece to the estate, taking over Cascina Pira, in the Rocche di Castiglione Falletto locality, in 1989 and thus beginning the vinification of Barolo. In 2001, a new course began, with the first vintage overseen by Luca, the current generation of the family, while the years from 2003 to 2006 marked the collaboration with the late and lamented Tommaso Canale in the production of the legendary Barolo Vigna Rionda.

The Roagna family's property consists of 20 hectares in total, about 15 of which are planted with vines and the rest with woodland. The winery is based in Paglieri, within the municipality of Barbaresco, and the main vineyards are spread within this area. Asili is certainly the prominent name: a parcel of just over 2.000 square meters acquired in 1961, oriented toward the southwest at an elevation of 250 meters above sea level; Pajè is a historic estate, in the exact center of the commune's territory, extremely calcareous and elevated to about 230 meters; Montefico, spread over just 0.24 hectares, is the longest vinified geographical mention, in the family since 1929; and finally Carso, rich in sands, marls and marine sediments, where Chardonnay and Dolcetto are grown. On the other hand, on the commune of Castiglione Falletto, in the Barolo appellation, lies Pira, which represents a family monopoly mention and the estate's largest vineyard, with its 7 hectares planted with vines plus 4 wooded, whose oldest rows date back to 1937. The commitment to caring for this heritage is expressed through the rejection of synthetic products, the preservation of old vines and the continuation of mass selection, carrying out harvests only when fully ripe.

Consistently, the Roagna winery makes wine with minimal use of sulfur and adhering to the most recognized tradition: fermentations with indigenous yeasts, long submerged cap macerations and equally long maturation in oak barrels. All Barbaresco crus are vinified individually, as of course is the Pira cru from Barolo.