Wines from Michele Chiarlo

History

The story starts with Pietro Chiarlo, a farmer from Bubbio who later presided over the cooperative winery of Calamandrana until 1980. His eldest son, Michele, born in 1935, began making wine under his own name in 1956. Two years later, in 1958, he bottled his first Barolo cru under the family label.

In 1972 Michele built a larger winery in Calamandrana and began buying vineyards in the Langhe, Monferrato and Gavi. In 1974 he was among the first to make a Barbera using malolactic fermentation. He helped found the Consorzio Grandi Vini in 1987 and, in 2012, the Accademia del Barolo. Michele died in 2023.

The land and the vineyards

Michele's father advised him to buy vineyards only in important positions, and that advice shaped the estate. Cerequio at La Morra and Cannubi, two Barolo crus, were acquired in 1988 and 1989. Tenuta La Court, about 20 hectares at Castelnuovo Calcea, followed in 1995. Today the company farms 110 hectares across the Langhe, Monferrato and Gavi.

The estate names seven crus: Cerequio and Cannubi for Barolo, Asili, Faset and Montestefano for Barbaresco, La Court for Nizza, and Rovereto for Gavi. The winery says it treats each vineyard as a living place and works with indigenous grape varieties and ecologically minded practices.

The wines

The range is built around those sites. The Crus line gathers the single vineyard wines: Barolo Cerequio and Cannubi, Barbaresco Asili, Faset and Montestefano, Nizza La Court and Gavi Rovereto. Alongside it sit the Classic and Palás collections.

Barbera has a special place here. Michele pursued DOCG status for Nizza, the Barbera from the hills around Nizza Monferrato, working with the oenologist Giuliano Noè, and the denomination was granted in 2014. In 2022 Barolo Cerequio and Barbaresco Faset became the first Piedmontese wines distributed worldwide through La Place de Bordeaux.

Today

Michele's sons run the business. Stefano looks after the vineyards and the oenological side, and Alberto handles sales and marketing. The estate has also opened itself to visitors in unusual ways: Art Park La Court, a land art project among the vineyards, was created in 2003, Palás Cerequio, a small relais beside the Cerequio cru, opened in 2011, and the Cannubi Path was added in 2024. The winery has belonged to the Grandi Marchi institute since 2004.

Founded

1956

Vineyards

110 hectares (Langhe, Monferrato, Gavi)

Main grapes

Nebbiolo, Barbera, Cortese

Owners

Chiarlo family

Winemaker

Stefano Chiarlo