2021 Barolo en Primeur Charity Auction

BY ANTONIO GALLONI | SEPTEMBER 28, 2022

I am delighted to once again host the Barolo en Primeur Charity Auction, being held simultaneously in New York City and Grinzane Cavour on Friday, October 28 at 12pm New York time and 6pm Piedmont time. This is a rare opportunity to acquire 2021 Barolo ahead of release. Some of the lots will be sold as single barrels, as they were last year, while others are collections of smaller lots from various producers, organized by village. All the wines will be adorned with special labels designed by artist Michelangelo Pistoletto.

This year’s Barolo en Primeur Charity Auction is being led jointly by the Consorzio of Barolo, Barbaresco, Alba, Langhe and Dogliani and the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Cuneo (Fondazione CRC), the foundation of the local bank in Cuneo, Italy’s 8th largest foundation, with assets of €1.6B.

Cascina Gustava map, courtesy of Alessandro Masnaghetti. Used with permission. © 2022 Enogea, Alessandro Masnaghetti

2021 Barolo from the Gustava Cru – The Single Barrels

In 2021, the Fondazione CRC acquired Cascina Gustava through CRC Donare, its Piedmont-based charitable foundation, with the goal of ensuring the vineyard would always remain a sort of real-life laboratory for the students of Alba’s school of oenology. Gustava is located in Grinzane Cavour, right next to the castle, the former home of Camillo Benso di Cavour, Italy’s first prime minister.

The acquisition of the vineyard resulted in the creation of a charitable auction inspired by the Hospices de Beaune that the organizers hope will grow in the coming years. Donato Lanati, one of Italy’s most respected consulting oenologists, was brought on to oversee the wines, which are made at the Ascheri cellars in Bra. There are a total of 15 barrels of 2021 Barolo, three of them from historic old vines planted in the 1960s.

Christie’s will run the live auction. Bidding is now open for those who can’t attend the live auction but who would like to submit a bid. Winning bidders are able to designate their charity of choice as the beneficiary and also specify bottle sizes for the Gustava wines, which are sold by the barrel. Readers who would like to attend the live auction, to be held at Il Gattopardo Restaurant, 13-15 West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019, can RSVP by sending us an email at events+charity@vinous.com. Please note seating is extremely limited.

I tasted all of these wines from barrel this past June. Overall, I found the quality of the 2021s higher than the 2020s. I suspect that is attributable to a more favorable growing season, a full year the team from the Alba Oenological School had to work the vineyard and the greater experience that comes from a second year in vinifying micro-parcels, which is not common in Piedmont. In 2021, harvest took place over three days, one for the old vines and two for the rest of the vineyard a week later. The wines are fermented in stainless steel and are aging in François Frères medium-toast oak barrels.