About Mario Marengo
Mario Marengo is a small, family-run estate based in La Morra in the Barolo zone of Piedmont, Italy. The winery is known for producing traditionally styled Barolo wines, with holdings in respected crus including Brunate. Marco Marengo, who took over from his father Mario, continues to focus on minimal-intervention winemaking with extended maceration and aging in large Slavonian oak casks.
Prices are for take away and shipping. The wine bar serves from its own list.
The winery
About Mario Marengo
History
The Marengo family has made wine in La Morra, in the Barolo zone, since 1899, according to importer notes. The cellar is on Via XX Settembre in the village. Mario Marengo gives the estate its name, and the family still runs it. Sources disagree on who exactly leads the business today, so the exact family line is left out here.
The land and the vineyards
This is a small property of about six to seven hectares. Two parcels carry the reputation: roughly 1.2 hectares in Brunate, one of the best known crus of La Morra, and about one hectare in Bricco delle Viole. The family has been tied to its Brunate land since 1903, and the vines there are old, with an average age close to seventy years.
The vineyards lie around 350 metres above sea level and mostly face south. The family also keeps a plot on the Valmaggiore hill in Vezza d'Alba, in the Roero, for Nebbiolo d'Alba, and grows Dolcetto and Barbera, the everyday reds of the Langhe.
The wines
Barolo is the centre of the range. There is a Barolo that blends several La Morra vineyards, and separate bottlings from Brunate and from Bricco delle Viole. The first Barolo with the Brunate name on the label came in 1974; Bricco delle Viole followed in 1997. A Brunate Riserva is also made in selected years.
These are traditional, structured Barolos from La Morra, a village known for wines that are perfumed and approachable earlier than those of other communes.
Today
The estate stays small, which keeps the work close to the vines. For a drinker, it offers a way to compare two famous La Morra crus from one hand and one cellar.
- Founded
- 1899
- Vineyards (hectares)
- About 6 to 7
- Main grapes
- Nebbiolo, Dolcetto, Barbera