In the scenographic context of the Grinzane Cavour Castle, on 25 October 2024, and in simultaneous connection with New York and London, the fourt edition of the charity auction to raise funds took place in favor of individuals and projects in the non-profit field, conducted by the house auction house Christie’s. The first edition, held in 2021, raised over 666,000 euros, which financed 17 charitable projects. In the second edition in 2022, over 834,800 euros were raised, 20 charitable projects were financed and, thanks to the generosity of the producers who made their bottles available, the historic Scuola Enologica di Alba was supported. In the third edition of 2023, a total of 877,000 euros were raised, thus exceeding the 2,377,800 euros in total of funds raised for charity in the first three editions of the auction.
This year too, the initiative will subsidize projects and initiatives of social utility in the fields of health, research, arts and culture, social inclusion and the safeguarding of Italy’s cultural heritage. Barolo en primeur is a social responsibility initiative promoted by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Cuneo, in collaboration with the Fondazione CRC Donare ETS and the Consorzio di Tutela Barolo Barbaresco Alba Langhe e Dogliani: a charity competition that this year will be paired with 15 barriques of a prestigious wine such as Barolo while it is still being refined.
When the wine has completed its aging, that is in 2027, from each barrique around 270 bottles will be produced, marked with a unique label created by an internationally renowned artist. The collaboration with the wineries of the Consorzio di Tutela Barolo Barbaresco Alba Langhe e Dogliani has been consolidated, who this year too will donate more than 938 bottles of 0.75 lt, 243 of 1.5 lt and 48 of 3 lt, for a total of 1.212 liters whose funds raised will be donated to the Scuola Enologica di Alba and other local organizations. Barolo en primeur confirms itself as a noble and concrete initiative to promote Barolo and its territory and support various projects of social utility in Piedmont, in Italy and in the world.
The Gustava Vineyard is a piece of land of almost 4 hectares extending over the slopes of the hill of Grinzane Cavour Castle, already planted with vines when the property belonged to Count Camillo Benso.
With the aim of producing top quality Barolo in this historic vineyard, the Fondazione CRC – its owner – has involved Donato Lanati’s Enosis Meraviglia Laboratory. Donati has been tasked with overseeing the whole production process, from the ripening of the grapes to the vinification and subsequent ageing in the bottle.
In the context of Barolo en primeur project, Antonio Galloni, the renowned wine critic, tasted the wine from each barrique and expressed his opinion about how these rare wines capture the essence of Barolo and, in particular, of the Gustava Vineyard.
His tasting notes in which he describes the wine at the specific moment it is tasted and also anticipates its likely evolution are available on the catalog dedicated to the auction and on the Fondazione CRC Donare ETS YouTube channel.
With the acquisition of the Cascina Gustava Vineyard in 2019 – the genesis of the Barolo en primeur operation – the Cassa di Risparmio di Cuneo Foundation launched an important social project which:
• integrates local development, territorial community involvement, training and economic and social values;
• promotes on-the-job training for the students of the Umberto I High School or the Alba Wine School;
• contributes to supporting socially useful projects, raising funds for “good causes” represented by non-profit organisations that share the aims of this initiative;
• showcases one of the assets of excellence of the Barolo territory, wine production, famed throughout the world, thanks also to a project that is unprecedented for Italy, that is, the auctioning of wine en primeur for solidarity purposes.
The surface of the Gustava Vineyard planted with Nebbiolo has been divided into four macro plots, according to altitude and exposure. Two different criteria were adopted for gathering the grapes during the 2020 harvest: the first was to identify the historical vines planted over 50 years ago, in order to vinify the grapes separately from the younger ones; the second criterion, on the other hand, was to harvest the remaining grapes in the vineyard by micro-zones.
This method of precision harvesting shows how the potential of a wine, in addition to exposure and climatic and seasonal trends, depends mainly on the ability of the vine roots to enter into symbiosis with the micro-organisms present in that specific portion of land, enabling the plants to absorb micro-elements and organic substances, which are different from the adjacent micro-areas, on which the organoleptic differences and, even more so, the longevity of the wine produced will depend. The wines are beginning the ageing phase in which the link between tannins and anthocyanins evolves, aimed at achieving colour stability and brightness. Although it is too early to judge the characteristics of the wine that will be obtained, important differences are already evident both between the wines obtained from the historic vines, compared to the younger ones, and, above all, between the wines obtained from the different micro-zones, highlighting the fact that the vineyard is a complex mosaic of parcels, each with its own clear and specific personality.
The Piedmontese territories of Langhe-Roero and Monferrato are a popular national and international wine tourist attraction, an extraordinary example of the perfect integration of man and the environment, recognised by UNESCO, which has decided to award these territories World Heritage status, the first acknowledgement in the world of a wine-producing area.
The territory of Barolo has become one of the most internationally appreciated wine tourist destinations, inspired by the iconic nature of the wine that bears its name and the rediscovery of the beauty of the area.
Barolo, with its extraordinary international reputation, is already the driving force behind the promotion of the area, also on account of the work of the Barolo Barbaresco Alba Langhe Dogliani Consortium, which for over seventy years – together with its producers – has been a leading player in the technical, economic and social development of the Langhe wine-growing region.
This is the context in which Barolo en primeur is set, a unique event that aims to promote the remarkable nature of this wine and its territory at an international level.
The barriques associated with the charity event Barolo en primeur are unique, in a limited number of exemplars, and contain a wine with distinctive characteristics that will not be found in any other bottle, as confirmed by the oenologist Donato Lanati and the wine critic Antonio Galloni. This is the case with the barriques that take centre stage at Barolo en primeur.
These are barriques with a high social value, which will be gifted in this major charity initiative, thanks to which it will be possible to support numerous initiatives and bodies operating in the non-profit field.
A wine, therefore, that is an expression of a territory and its ability to work together in support of programmes of general and social interest.
The complete regulation will be available to download soon.
