Arriving at Cascina Delle Rose

Tucked into the Barbaresco Cru of Tre Stelle, Cascina Delle Rose winery is just a few minutes drive from the village of Barbaresco in the Langhe hills of Piemonte.

Pulling up to the gate at Cascina Delle Rose you are welcomed like a friend by Riccardo, the younger of the two Cascina Delle Rose brothers, as he ushers you in through the winery gates. His energy and passion are evident even as he shares information he’s likely shared many times before with previous visitors.

He doesn’t rush things-instead taking the time to paint a picture of where in Barbaresco you are as you stand in the Cascina delle Rose vineyards between the vines. He points out the locations of the Rio Sordo and Tre Stelle vineyards, the two crus that produce the fruit for Cascina delle Rose’s Barbarescos so that you can match up what you’ve seen on the map, with what you can now take in with your own eyes.

‘The Rio Sordo are the vineyards here just next to the house’ he says, pointing, ‘and the Tre Stelle are over there across the road’.

Tre Stelle versus Rio Sordo

The Barbaresco crus of Tre Stelle and Rio Sordo produce fruit with different character. This is, in part, due to the different soil compositions of the vineyards. Tre Stelle sits on predominantly limestone soils while Rio Sordo vineyards have a higher % of clay. Tre Stelle is known for producing some of the most elegant and delicately nuanced Nebbiolo in Barbaresco. Rio Sordo produces wines with more muscular (a characteristic commonly attributed to wines grown on clay soils) and earthy characteristics.

The History

The Cascina Delle Rose vineyards and house were bought by Riccardo’s great grandparents in 1948. His mother, Giovanna Rizzolio, grew up on the farm and vineyards but the wines made by her grandparents and later her father were mostly for family consumption or sale to neighbors and friends. Once Giovanna’s father and grandfather had passed away the estate didn’t do much of anything until she came back in the 80s and started working with the land again. She and her husband first released wines under the CDR label (for commercial sale) in 1992.

Davide and Riccardo were born in 1987 and 1992 and grew up around the family wine business, leaving only to attend university for a few years (in nearby Alba) and work for a short time in restaurants (Davide) and on the import side of the business (Riccardo) before returning home to help run the Estate. Their mother, Giovanna, was in charge of the winemaking until handing the reigns over to her sons. While Riccardo found himself drawn more to the cellar and to the business and consumer side of the business, Davide was called by the vineyards and the farming side of things. Thus, you can find Riccardo more at home in his office, in the cellar or dealing with customers while it is more customary for Davide to be out under the Piemonte sun tending to the vines and the earth that nourishes the vines.

The Winery

Cascina delle Rose is one of those Piemonte wineries in the rare and most likely brief position of being located in one of the most respected wine regions in the world and recognized for the extremely high quality of their wines, yet still small enough and rustic enough to maintain that humble and under-the-radar feel. There is no grandeur. No massive palatial buildings or expansive courtyards. Just a humble winery and home.

The winery itself is small but has excellent equipment and facilities. The brothers are working on having a new cellar built, in order to have more temperature controlled space on site to allow them to both house a larger number of wines as they increase in production but also to store library vintages. This might seem like something most wineries would already have, but for the brothers at Cascina delle Rose, this new cellar and the additional space it will provide feels like an exciting and long awaited luxury. The family has built things up piece by piece. Adding new equipment one year and perhaps some new casks the next. Beginning construction on the cellar, but knowing it will take years to finance and finish the project. Cash flow in directly supports cash flow out.

This is the kind of winery where you feel good spending your money. You know where it’s going. And it isn’t to a faceless corporation or to fund a billionaire’s next Ferrari.

Humility and Gratitude

The two descriptors that come to mind when attempting to describe Riccardo Sobrino’s attitude and energy are: exuberantly passionate and grateful.

There is something so gracious about a winemaking family who live in such a prestigious wine region and who knows their success is guaranteed to continue, being so hyper-aware of just how lucky they are to be living the life that they are. Making great wines from stunning fruit grown in some of the best vineyards in the most prestigious red wine region in Italy, and getting to do so alongside their family is pretty darn great and they know it.

Oh right.. and the wines.

The Wines

Like most wineries in this region Cascina Delle Rose makes a Dolcetto, a Barbera and then a range of Barbarescos including single vineyard Barbarescos.

The wines show their terroir, even down to the vineyard the fruit comes from with a distinct elegance and delicacy (red fruit, floral notes and soft edges with a nervy vibrancy) in the wines from the Tre Stelle vineyards with a bit overt strength in those from the Rio Sordo vines but still with soft edges and on the elegant feminine side as Barbarescos go.

The Tre Stelle vineyards are known for producing particularly pretty, delicate wines. I noted rose petal and cherry with faint hints of lingering anise in the background in the Tre Stelle wines whereas I sensed and tasted more earth and slightly drier fruit in the Rio Sordo wines.

The wines from Cascina Delle Rose don’t see any time in small, new oak barrels. The Dolcetto, Barbera and Langhe Nebbiolo are tank fermented and the Barbarescos see time in large mostly neutral (used previously and therefore imparting no oak flavor) Slavonian oak casks, though Riccardo is experimenting with some Swiss casks now as well.

Their unoaked Nebbiolo is a gorgeous representation of Tre Stelle fruit. You taste the vineyard, the fruit, the vintage and nothing else. It’s naked Nebbiolo. The qualities of the fruit and the absence of wood or interruptive winemaking leaves this wine blissfully and completely pure.

As you move onto the Barbarescos, you taste wines that have had time in cask and have had more age before release. You also taste vineyards that are grown only for Barbaresco and compare and contrast between the Tre Stelle and Rio Sordo wines. These are the focus and the pride of the winery. Though their Dolcetto and Langhe Nebbiolos are spectacular and at half the price of a Barbaresco, a few bottles should be snapped up for easy drinking on your patio or terrace later.

Visiting the Winery

Phone: +39 0173 638292 / 638322

Email: cascinadellerose@cascinadellerose.it

To stay on-site at the Cascina Delle Rose estate visit their B & B booking page.

Note: I recommend calling. Their response time to emails can be very slow so you may not get a response in time to secure an appointment for the dates you are in town.

Where can you buy Cascina Delle Rose wines (outside of the winery) when you get back home?

Here is a list of U.S. and U.K importers. You can contact these businesses to find out where the wines are currently available.

United States

Texas/Louisiana: La Famiglia Corona Importers LLC

New York/New Jersey: Polaner Selections

Illinois: Pennsylvania Cream Wine Company

California: Tamalpais Wine

Oregon: Prufrock Wines

Georgia: Integrity Wines

United Kingdom

Berry Bros & Rudd.