story…

This is not your typical Piedmont winery, nor is it your typical Piedmont wine story. The story of Azienda Agricola Lalù begins at the University of Gastronomic Science near Bra in Piemonte. Where Lara Rocchietti & Luisa Sala, a couple of Turin born girls, meet and become quick friends even choosing to dorm together during their time at university. On top of their school studies, they both took and Italian sommelier diploma course to delve more into the wine side of things; *while their courses at the university included wine, they also covered a wide range of subjects outside of wine. They concluded their time at university with a joint thesis on what was required to create a carbon-neutral winery.

With degrees in hand, the two set off into the world to gather more practical experience. They spent time in the Southern Hemisphere working harvest in South Africa & Argentina before returning to the Piedmont. Upon their return, and after sending hundreds of resumes, they struck gold & were given the opportunity to work with the Oberto’s at Trediberri. Their time there proved to be more rewarding than they could have dreamed. Not only did they get to work alongside this small family operated estate, learning essential knowledge about grape farming & production. It was through the Oberto’s that they were given the oppurtunity to purchase their own vineyard in 2015. A half hectare of vines in the Roncaglie Cru in La Morra.

Their newly purchased vineyard, which they helped replant in 2014, was going to need time before they could produce anything from it. So they spent 2015, 16, 17, & 18 working throughout the Langhe, putting more harvests under their belts and racking up more time in the cellar. On top of the time they were putting in in the Langhe, they also managed to secure time working in Burgundy under two top lauded producers, Domaine des Comtes Lafon & Cecile Tremblay. Both estates offered equal, but different experiences helping shape what the girls would eventually employ in their own winery. The 2019 vintage marked the first bottling for Lalù

Today Lalù is comprised of 5 hectares of vines, all farmed by Luisa & Lara. Working with mostly Nebbiolo along with a little bit of Barbera from their small handful of sites. This is a very young estate, but even in their youth they have gained the attention & respect of locals, enthusiasts and the like.

*Lalù is the combination of the first two letters of each of their names.

philosophy…

Organics forms the base of all things Lalù, but working organically is simply not enough for these two ambitious ladies. They are constantly experimenting and striving to be more environmentally conscious both in and outside the vineyard. Guided by their time working both locally in the Piemonte and in Burgundy they have landed on a style/philosophy all their own. Leaving cover crop in between the rows of vines and doing what they can to encourage biodiversity surrounding their holdings. They’ve begun regenerative farming practices & compost implementations inspired by their friend Phillaine Isabel.

In the cellar they take a traditional approach, albeit with an eye towards forward thinking techniques. Searching for delicacy and freshness in their wines, they emplement the following for their wines in the cellar. All wines are fermented spontaneously, in some years they use a pied de cuve system. They ferment all parcels separately and when they use pied de cuve it is also created from & for each separate plot. All movement in the cellar is done through gravity flow, pumpovers are down sans a pump - juice is drawn off gently from the bottom and then hand poured over top twice a day to keep the caps wet. Very little press juice is ever used, typically in lighter years like 22’ & 23’ and even then it’s only from the gentlest, first cycle. They utilize a combination of concrete and large Austrian oak for fermentations & aging. They have preference for Mittelberger cooperage, another inspiration gathered from their friend Phillaine Isabel.

They utilize a unique technique with their Langhe Nebbiolo & Barbera bottlings, employing some whole cluster and whole berry inclusions. The technique, a way of destemming that consists of removing only the peduncle and leaving the rachis & pedicel of the grape intact, was an innovative technique developed by Lalou Bize-Leroy. While this is a far more labor intensive technique than using a destemmer, the end product shows a level of purity that is unmatched. This technique is not always used for their nebbiolo bottlings. Wines are all bottled unfiltered. SO2 is applied after malo and before bottling.

Vineyards…

Their holding in the Roncaglie Cru represents the core of Lalù’s production. They rent vineyards in Bussia, Monforte d’Alba, and in Le Coste di Monforte, Monforte d’Alba. They added an additional 1.5 hectares in late 2021, increasing their potential Barolo bottlings to three different sites.

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