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This company was founded in 1956, as a small winery in Calamandrana (Asti area), to market Barbera and Moscato; it was originally called “Duca d’Asti”. Two years later, the small company was already able to age Barbera, and in the same year, it began producing Barolo.

At the beginning of the 1980s, the Chiarlo family were among the first to understand that high-quality wine also comes from a remarkable reduction of the clusters per each single plant.

To secure excellent raw materials, the Chiarlos have bought several new vineyards and today, they own 150 acres of cultivable land, and manages some other 123.

The company owns five estates in Monferrato (Tenuta Aluffi, Montemareto, Costa delle Monache, La Serra, and Vigneto Ariotta) and two more in the Langhe (Cerequio and Cannubi); thanks to the different terroirs and the painstaking and passionate management of the farms, the Chiarlos continue to produce great wines.

Tenuta Aluffi, (70 acres), has always been considered one of the most beautiful in this area, mainly thanks to its two spectacular and majestic hills covered by iconic cypresses (Cupressus sempervirens L.).

Montemareto, on the other hand, is a true example of brave and stubborn viticulture: it was abandoned until the 1990s, but then several major improvements were made in order to cope with its steep slope and make the soil extremely suitable for this type of cultivation.

All in all, vineyards were often planted in hilly and often secluded areas, in order to create a terroir of true excellence for each individual grape variety.

The plant yield is adjusted with the careful thinning of the bunches, often sacrificing good production to just obtain better quality.

Vineyard management operations are carried out in full compliance with the main ecological criteria, without altering the natural rhythms or stimulating growth and yield.

Several maintenance interventions are performed every year, such as balanced and severe pruning, pest treatments (with the use of low environmental impact products), meticulous manual leaf removal, and, finally, thorough inter-row grassing. The latter, adopted in the Vigneto Ariotta estate, allows to reduce any run-off phenomena (due to intense rainfall on bare soils or steep areas without vegetation cover) and increase biodiversity within the vineyard; useful insects are also used to protect crops.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)