The saying ‘like father, like son’ applies to Alfredo Roagna and his grown son Luca. They share an infectious passion for their wines that bear the family name, and for upholding a tradition dating to the 1920s.
The Roagna family has been producing wine since the mid-19th century. The modern legacy began in 1953 when Alfredo Roagna inherited the estate and solidified its reputation for crafting iconic Barbaresco wines.
Their family home is located in the small hamlet of Paglieri, home to the famous 'Paje' vineyard. This plot is the foundation of the estate, which in all covers 6.5ha. In 1990 they were able to purchase two slices of the renonwned vineyar sites Castligione Falletto and La Pira. Over the years the family has managed to purchase all of the neighbouring lands on the Pira hill, effectively giving the family a monopole vineyard.
All of the vineyards are worked organically with no herbicides ever being used, grass grows between the rows and only copper and slphur solutions are used for treatment. The soils are never worked at any point and the vines are never trimmed back, giving them a tree-like appearance. The key to understanding Roagna's wines is their insistence upon biodiverse massal selection and old vineyards up to 100 years old alongside the 10 points of Roagna Manifesto.
These ten points are the essence of our family as interpreters of viticulture and wine.
-Old vines
-Massale selection
-Biodiversity, no herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers
-Harvest at physiological maturity
-Pied de cuve with indigenous yeasts
-Long aging in oak barrels
-Bottling with little sulfur, without filtration and fining
-Long maceration with submerged cap
Artisans
-Purity of taste and smell (terroir) without notes of toasted oak
Securing allocations of Roagna are extremely difficult but over the years we have created a great relationship with the supplier and we get access to the wines once or twice a year. Roagna stands as one of Piedmont's finest producers, earning a place among legendary names such as Gaja and Giacosa.
