Brovia
Piemonte
Brovia is a small family owned farm that started in 1863 and has been in the family ever since. Giacinto, his daughters Elena and Christina and son in law Alex have worked together since 2001 and their complimentary skills have brought about subtle changes that have shifted the estate comfortably into the first division of Barolo producers. Giacinto fortunately had the foresight to buy vineyards at a time when it was not fashionable, their 19 hectares are in excellent sites in both Castiglione Falletto and Serralunga d’Alba, from these vineyards come the single vineyard, or ‘Cru’ Barolos of Villero, Rocche, Garblèt Sue (Fiasco) and Ca’ Mia (Brea) and between them they are also responsible for the ‘house’ Barolo. These Cru wines are a real treat, all are from Nebbiolo vines that are trained the same way and are farmed the same way, even the winemaking and ageing is almost identical and the wines are so entirely different, the characters of each terroirs leap from the glass.
Alongside the Barolo are wines made from the local vines of Barbera, Dolcetto, Freisa, Arneis and soon there will be a Moscato. The total output rarely exceeds 50,000 bottles and miniscule quantities of each wine are made. There are no experimental plantings, no Merlot, not even patch of Pinot Noir, this is old school traditional winemaking, barriques are only used for one wine and that is the Barbera from Ca’ Mia called ‘Brea’, every single wine released is excellent.
This is a superb set of wines from Brovia. For reasons I can-t quite understand Brovia remains incredibly overlooked considering the quality of the juice they put in the bottle. In recent years Brovia has been making terrific wines in an enlightened traditional style that is immensely appealing. The estate favors long fermentations. The single-vineyard Barolos are aged in French oak casks, while the Barolo (made from young vines) is aged in Slavonian oak. The resulting wines offer notable complexity and tons of site-specific detail, which makes them great choices for learning about some of Piedmont-s top terroirs. Even better, prices have remained exceedingly fair in relative terms, although US importer Neal Rosenthal declined to provide pricing on the 2004 Barolos. Readers should be aware that Brovia has decided to hold back the release of the 2004 Barolo Villero as they believe the wine needs more time. These are some of my notes from a barrel sample of that wine I tasted in April 2007: -stunning .... sublime .... elegant.- Simply put, Brovia is on fire. Readers won-t want to miss out on these exceptional wines.
Wine Advocate October 2008
Website: http://www.brovia.net/