The Elio Grasso Estate, located in the municipality of Monforte d'Alba, has 42 hectares of land of which 24 are forests and meadows that surround the 18 hectares of vineyards, within the World Heritage site.
We believe that to be acknowledged first as grape farmers, and then as wine producers, is the best way to honour, and continue the labours of, those who have faced before us the challenges that working with nature and her products, like wine, entails. This, and a desire to be true to ourselves, prompts us propose, without presumption, the convictions and conduct shared by all Langhe farming families, characteristics worth preserving and which we believe make the difference.
History and the Growth of the Estate
The vineyards owned by the Grasso family are the estate's greatest assets. The area where they are located has always been considered outstanding wine country, as is demonstrated by the inclusion of our holdings in the map of the finest vineyards drawn up by the great historian, Lorenzo Fantini, in the early 20th century.
In the early 1980s we decided to go back to our origins as grape growers, well aware that our work did not stop at the end of the row of vines. We had no illusions that we were inventing anything: we merely wanted to comply with the best in the traditions and work of our predecessors, without any preconceived ideas. The first logical consequence was the decision, from 1978, to vinify and bottle separately grapes from our various vineyards.
The Vineyards
Recognising the overriding need to respect and enhance the unique characteristics of the vineyards, we look on these terroir, as well-aspected hillsides are called around here, as magical places where we can rediscover our own roots.
In fact it was in the early 1980s that we decided to go back to our origins as grape growers, well aware that our work did not stop at the end of the row of vines. We had no illusions that we were inventing anything: we merely wanted to comply with the best in the traditions and work of our predecessors, without any preconceived ideas. The first logical consequence was the decision, from 1978, to vinify and bottle separately grapes from our various vineyards.
Our goal was to enable the estate to find its own space in a market where excellent producers were already operating. Our one-step-at-a-time policy began with the successive replantings of our Nebbiolo, Barbera and Dolcetto. In 1986, we added a small plot of a non-native variety, Chardonnay, "educating" the fruit to express the terroir into which it had been introduced. At present, our average annual output does not exceed 90,000 bottles, a level that enables us to maintain the family-managed orientation of our work, as well as meticulous control over all stages of winemaking, from vineyard to cellar.
The Cellar
Although our winery has maintained the dimensions of a small producer, we have equipped it appropriately, and provided it with the necessary spaces to work as simply and rationally as possible. The investment was inspired by our over 30-year-long commitment to vinifying all our grapes separately, according to the vineyard of provenance.
Our cellar is provided with proper spaces where fermentation and maturation is carried out unhurriedly, and with all due attention. Every Elio Grasso wine is given time to mature so it achieves just the right balance before going into bottle. After they have been bottled, the wines age for several more months before emerging from the cellar. They will have acquired serious ageing potential, but are also ready to be enjoyed when still young.