Cigliuti Vie Erte Barbaresco

The winery has belonged to the Cigliuti family for four generations. It was given its name, Fratelli Cigliuti, by Renato’s father and uncle, who until 1964 used to sell grapes and unbottled wine on the local market. It was his grandfather, his father Leone and his uncle Romualdo who handed the traditional art of making wine down to Renato, the current owner, his wife Dina and his daughters Claudia and Silvia. Renato Cigliuti began working for the family business when he was a slip of a lad and, growing up, decided to carry it on himself. At the same time, he also decided to change its winemaking philosophy. He had always believed that the local Langhe soil was capable of producing high quality, long-lasting wines. He thus began to thin the grapes in his vineyards, a technique practised by only a handful of producers at the time. His neighbours would ask him if he was mad — those were the postwar years and throwing away food wasn’t something to be taken lightly! Renato used to reply that, since he couldn’t have quality and quantity both at once, he preferred to opt for quality. According to him, quality was something that had to be put in glass, which is how, in 1964, he came to release his first 300 bottles of Barbaresco.

Over the years Renato didn’t expand his winery a great deal, mainly because he didn’t think his daughters would be interested in working the land. As far as he was concerned, it was strictly a man’s business. Claudia and Silvia proved him wrong, starting to help out in the vineyards in their summer holidays. After a few years, it had become natural for them to cultivate the same work and passion as their parents.

Four people work in this family-run company: Renato, his wife Dina and their daughters Claudia and Silvia, who oversee production from the beginning to the end of the process. They spend most of their time in the vineyards because, in their opinion, it is precisely the vineyards that can give life to great wines with a personality all of their own— wines capable of capturing the characteristics of a vintage and the identity of a terroir.

Claudia and Silvia still follow this philosophy and this enables them to work directly in the vineyards, overseeing the production of their wines from start to finish.

Work in the cellar is kept to a bare minimum and the wines are left to follow their own natural course. No select yeasts are used, only native, and grapes ferment in steel vats at a controlled temperature. All the wines are aged on wood, save for the Dolcetto which stays in steel vats through to bottling.