Orlando Abrigo

Orlando Abrigo

【Barbaresco in harmony with nature, and a cellar built for perfect maturation】

The story of Orlando Abrigo begins in 1949, when his grandparents were selling grapes and wine. Orlando lost his father at the age of thirteen and the family land passed to sharecroppers. In 1960, his studies behind him, he took work elsewhere while vinifying the fruit those tenants grew.

In 1973 he resolved to farm his own land, and made his first Barbaresco. Barbaresco was granted DOCG status in 1981, and in 1986 Orlando's second son Giovanni took charge of a harvest for the first time. Having studied oenology, Giovanni took over the running of the estate from his father in 1988. In 1996 he bought the great Montersino vineyard, and in 2013 he built a new winery. Today Giovanni runs the cantina and farms 21 hectares.

The “TEMPO” project

Bottles from the very best vintages are carefully set aside and left to mature in the cellar for as long as each cuvée requires, then released to the market a second time under a shellac capsule — a cap of natural resin drawn from an insect secretion which, unlike a conventional capsule, does not interfere with the wine's development and in fact helps it age beautifully as the years pass.

The aim is to see how the estate's greatest wines evolve when they are given both ideal conditions and the time to mature properly.

Barbaresco Montersino and Barbaresco Riserva Rongallo are currently part of the TEMPO project, each re-released ten years after first reaching the market, while Langhe Bianco Tre Plus is re-released after five.