Tenuta Carretta is a historical winery located around the town of Piobesi d’Alba in the Italian Piedmont, near the Barolo and Barbaresco production areas.
It has recently opened to the public a large tasting room, restaurant and hotel to allow visitors to enjoy a traditional Piedmontese wine and food experience.
The property dates back to the Middles-Ages, and now includes 65 hectares (160 acres) of vineyards, producing typical Piedmont wines from the Barolo, Barbaresco, Roero, or Alba areas.
Join us as we discover more about Tenuta Carretta winery.
Brief history
Tenuta Carretta is a winery rich of history, probably the most historical company of the entire Piedmont. Regarding the origins of the name, it was thought that “Carretta” could derive from the Celtic word “car”, which means “stone”, a term justified by substantial gypsum benches that characterize the east the hill on which stands the estate.
Recent research in the archive of Conti Roero Guarene have instead brought to light the existence of a noblewoman Alba, “dominates Careta Constanzi” which appears especially in a deed of 1353 as a land buyer Piobesi d’Alba. From this and other documentary references it is therefore clear that the estate should have taken its name from the noble woman who was its first owner.
However, it is a concession contract sharecropping drawn from Monteacuto notary Giorgio on 28 November 1467 in order to be considered the true starting point of the history of the estate. In it, the then owner Andrea Damiano, consignore of Piobesi, gives to the brothers Corrado, Giacomino and Pietrino Porrino permission to work, cultivating (and collecting) his lands of “cassina Careta” for nine years.
In 1811 the property passes from the Damiano to the Conti Roero, Roero to Turin in 1939 by brothers Vigil and, in 1985, the Miroglio family, Alba, founder and owner of the eponymous textile group.
Location
Tenuta Carretta is situated in the township of Piobesi d’Alba, in Piedmont, in the heart of Roero, a hilly region located north of the city of Alba, on the left bank of the river Tanaro. An area situated in the north-east of Cuneo province that takes its name from the Roero family, which ruled over this territory for centuries from medieval times on.
The Roero is a cluster of hills of varying shapes and sharp contrasts that are a succession of woods, arable land, desolate strongholds, castles and orderly vineyards. The territory is predominantly hilly and planted mainly with orchards and vineyards, so impervious it seems impossible that they are the work of man.
Climate
The climate is still today one of the most decisive factors of our viticulture.
The presence of valleys and hills which create different micro-climatic conditions and, more generally, the cool temperate continental climate with well-defined seasons, allow grapes to enhance particularly fine and intense aromas.
The fall in temperature between day and night during maturation it is the most influential aspect and characteristic of this wine-growing region, because it allows to increase the concentration of the aromas in the grape skins and to achieve a balance between his components.
Soil types
The Roero soils are young and mostly consist of sandstones, sedimentary rocks, or resulting from compaction of marine sands. It is actually lands emerged from the ancient sea water Padano later to the Langhe, during the Pliocene of the Tertiary period. For this reason the land is generally soft and good permeability, but located on steep hills and also very steep slopes.
The interaction between the characteristics of the soil, the microclimate and the different varieties of screw, together with the limited quantity of grapes produced per hectare, give the wines unique characteristics: the more sandy soils are those that express more fragrant wines and elegant, where instead sand joins more calcareous marl, the wines become more austere.
Vineyards and Grape Varieties
Tenuta Carretta boasts 65 hectares of vines spread over various plots of land. The winery itself, situated in Piobesi d’Alba, in the heart of Roero, is nestled among 35 hectares of vines that form a sort of natural amphitheatre around it.
The vineyards have a southern or south-western exposure, and varieties grown are: Roero Arneis, Favorita, Chardonnay, Barbera and Nebbiolo.
Second in importance are the 2.5 hectares of vines spread over 3 different plots of land on the Cannubi hills in Barolo, planted with Nebbiolo da Barolo. Then there is “Cascina Bordino” in Treiso, an 8.5 hectare steeply sloping vineyard high on the hill and planted with Nebbiolo da Barbaresco.
In S. Rocco Seno d’Elvio, on the boundary of the Barbaresco production zone, is Località Tavoleto, an 8 hectare vineyard planted with half Nebbiolo and half Dolcetto. Lastly, there is “Cascina Il Palazzo”, a vineyard situated in Madonna di Como, just outside Alba, a zone particularly suited to the production of Dolcetto d’Alba.
Winery
The estate shows an ancient architecture, which respect the style of the original mid-15th century structure.
The cellar was entirely reconstructed in the mid-1990s. Built into the hill, it is divided into two large areas: one dedicated to winemaking and bottling, and the other to aging. Here, the goal is to obtain the possible best quality, that’s why traditional methods are practiced alongside the best modern technology in both winemaking and aging.
The wine is first held in stainless steel tanks at a controlled temperature. Then, it is transferred to wooden Stockinger vats, after which it ages in oak wine barrels of various capacities and provenance.
Viticulture
Tenuta Carretta’s productive philosophy is based on the environmental sustainability. It means that the use of chemical products is permitted only in extreme situations, for the balanced development of the plant. So, in the vineyards is made an integrated viticultural, with practices eco-sustainable like the cover crop between rows of grape vines, and this is the main way in which the estate enhances the territory where its grapes grow.
People
Tenuta Carretta is part of the wine heritage of Miroglio family of Alba (CN) that goes under the collective name of Terre Miroglio (which includes the Malgrà cellar of Mombaruzzo and the Bulgarian EM Winery Elenovo, 150 hectares of vineyards in Thrace, Bulgaria). From the beginning, Edoardo Miroglio before, and his son Franco then, design and implement all the investments necessary for the production of high quality wines, respecting tradition but with a great opening to technology most advanced and changing markets.
Today, Giovanni Minetti is the CEO of the group, Roberto Giacone is the internal winemaker and the enologist Donato Lanati, one of the major international analyst of wine sector, is an external consultant.
Wines
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Every year, Tenuta Carretta produces around to 480,000 bottles of Piedmont’s most prestigious red and white DOC and DOCG wines, like Roero Arneis and Roero DOCG, Barbaresco DOCG and Barolo DOCG.
Thanks to many agriculture properties, it can offer a large range of wine appellation, with grapes that come from several areas, among Langhe and Roero. The wine flagship and best seller is the Cayega Roero Arneis Docg, a label made with 100% of arneis grape.
Then, Tenuta Carretta produces all the classic wines of the Langhe and Roero and various labels of Nebbiolo, Arneis, Favorita, Dolcetto, and Moscato. To highlight, is the prestigious and limited production of Barolo ‘Cannubi’, the most important and historical cru of the township of Barolo, offered also in the ‘Riserva’ typology, even more complexity and surprising.
Cellar door information
In Tenuta Carretta is possible to make a delightful itinerary for wine tourists, a pleasant and educational experience that offers interesting thematic moments, such as historical references, ampelographic information, winemaking techniques, and rules of wine tasting.
The tour is divided into different stops: it begins in the courtyard of the tenuta, descends into the wine cellar, passes by the barrels, and culminates in the tasting room for a guided tasting, involving participants in an aroma and flavor analysis of our wines.
In addition, Tenuta Carretta offers a welcoming Wine Shop, a charming hotel, a starred restaurant, called “21.9”, and also another restaurant, the “Locanda in Cannubi”, located on the peak of the famous Cannubi hill, in the township of Barolo. Furthermore, for the guests there is the opportunity making a Vine Trekking itinerary among the vineyards, called “Grape’s Road”, that goes through the hills around the estate of Piobesi d’Alba.
The opening hours to the public are: 9.00 am to 1.00 pm and 2.30 pm to 6.30 pm on weekdays; 10.00 am to 7.00 pm on weekends and holidays.
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