When Seagrams invested millions in Bersano wines in the late 1960’s, Arturo Bersano hired respected winemaker Luigi ‘Gigi’ Rosso to find him some good vineyards. The opportunity allowed Rosso to look over the entire areas for choice vineyards that were for sale, and gave him a good feeling for where he could look to buy vineyards of his own.

He established his winery in 1971. Today Gigi Rosso has 72 acres (a large holding by Piedmont standards) and a beautiful new winery in Castiglione Falletto on the main road toward Barolo, In fact, as you travel south Alba, the Gigi Rosso winery is the first you will come to after turning off on the road to Barolo. It’s the perfect place for a traveler to stop, with a spacious tasting room and a museum of historical winemaking implements. Rosso, with his sons Claudio and Maurizio, produces Barolo, Barbaresco, Barbera and Dolcetto.

The Rossos have four vineyards in the Langhe area, but the crown jewels is the Arione vineyard in the township of Serralunga, which produces wines of great class and longevity, combining feminine allure with masculine power, the quintessential attributes of Barolo. With 50 years of experience making wine, Gigi Rosso has a sense of tradition and history, but tradition doesn’t impede his quest for perfection. He is constantly experimenting and fine turning his techniques. His wines are fermented in temperature controlled stainless steel and aged in both large Slavonian oak casks and French oak barrels, depending on what suits the particular grapes. The winery produces about 21,000 cases of DOC and DOCG wines each year.

Gigi Son’s are an integral part of the operations. Claudio is in charge of the vineyards, Maurizio handles Marketing, which in this era involves a lot of exportation.

The multi-lingual Maurizio Rosso is well-suited to the job. He and his wife Mia, an American from Carmel, California, met at U.C. Santa Cruz when Maurizio was in California doing research for a book he was writing about the lives of Piedmontese immigrants. His latest Book, Myth and Personality, is about the wine-makers of Barolo, told in their own words.

If you would like to join us at the Wine Pleasures Workshop Buyer meets Italian Cellar and meet Maurizio Rosso and of course try his wines then please complete an enrollment form.