Fortified Winery
Rovellotti

December 5, 2008

Have you ever drunk wine made in a medieval citadel with drawbridge and moat? The Minute 00:60 sampled Piemonte wines and cheeses surrounded by fortified walls of bricks and river stones forming a "ricetto" in the town center of Ghemme. For centuries villagers retreated to this fortress during Italian city-state turf wars. The fort was sliced vertically into apartments. One slice each to house a family and their livestock until the fighting stopped.

Today the drawbridge is gone, but cartloads of Nebbiolo grapes pass through its gates on the way to becoming fine wines from Rovellotti, a family owned winery that has been crushing grapes for more than 600 years. Today production has grown to approximately 6,700 cases per year (80,000 bottles is how they describe it) and as its co-owner quipped, "When we started in 1972 grandpa drank 90% of our production."

Tours of the storage (some in 110-year old barrels), bottling, fining and packing functions move through cobblestone streets from apartment to apartment, bearing dates that mark the year of a family's renovation. Ancient roofs had to be cut open so that cranes could lower the largest barrels into place.

Rovellotti's Ghemme DOCG and other select wines are delightfully paired in a 17th Century tasting room with creamy Toma and Gorgonzola from nearby valleys of the pre-Alps. Certainly not your typical winery tour. Having direct access to Rovellotti's co-owner makes for a worthy detour for travelers in Northern Italy.

www.rovellotti.it

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