Roagna | Barolo Pira "Vecchie Viti" 2019 750ml

The label states it plainly: 3,588 bottles from a parcel planted in 1937, held back five years in the cellar before Roagna lets it leave Castiglione Falletto.

Pira is a historic vineyard in Castiglione Falletto, the village closest to the centre of the Barolo zone, and Roagna has been its sole owner since buying it in 1989; the label carries the words Unico Proprietario. The plot is sheltered uphill by the Rocche di Castiglione Falletto and downhill by a small wood, and the Japanese importer Terravert describes a soil that is mostly sand over limestone, blue clay and tufo, unusual for Barolo, across 4.88 hectares that touch no neighbouring vineyard. Since 2007 the family has vinified each cru by vine age, and Vecchie Viti takes only the oldest plants in Pira. Monica Larner, writing for The Wine Advocate, puts the 2019 at a 1.5-hectare section planted in 1937, part of it still on its own roots, with some ungrafted vines propagated by burying a shoot from a mother vine; it is usually among the last sites picked, in October.

The cellar follows the family manifesto. Grapes are picked by hand into 10 kg crates at physiological ripeness rather than by sugar, a pied de cuve of indigenous yeast is started for each cru a few days ahead, and fermentation runs in truncated oak vats with the skins held under the wine by oak planks, the old Langhe submerged-cap maceration that Giovanni Roagna once carried on until Christmas. Ageing is in large untoasted casks seasoned for up to ten years; Roagna says Pira usually needs three to four years in wood, and no Barolo leaves earlier than five years after harvest, unfined and unfiltered. The estate puts Pira Vecchie Viti at two to three thousand bottles a year; the 2019 label records 3,588 at 14% alcohol.

In the glass

Antonio Galloni (Vinous, October 2024, 99 points as quoted by Wine Library) found the 2019 more open than the straight Pira because of its inner perfume and sweetness, listing hard candy, rose petals, mint, orange peel and kirsch. Larner (The Wine Advocate, 98 points, same source) calls it fluid and luminous yet carrying the power of a concentrated vintage, with flowers and fresh mint lifting the nose; Luca Roagna told her wild mint grows between the rows. Wine Spectator (98, same source) notes cardamom, white pepper, strawberry and eucalyptus, linear but building to a long aftertaste.

When to open

Wine Spectator advises three to five more years and a window of 2028 to 2047; Galloni gives 2027 to 2044. Our suggestion is a two-hour decant and a serving temperature of about 17°C.

At the table

Our suggestion: brasato al Barolo, roast game birds, or tajarin with white truffle.

Quick facts

Provenance

Sourced from the Japanese importer.

Sources: Roagna (producer website and label); Terravert (Japanese importer); Vinous (A. Galloni), The Wine Advocate (M. Larner) and Wine Spectator as quoted by Wine Library; Il Glicine (Tokyo retailer)