Why it matters
The producer
Cascina Massara is a family estate in Verduno, the small commune at the northwestern edge of the Barolo zone in Piemonte. The Burlotto family has farmed these hills for at least three generations; the winery label is young, but the vines and the knowledge behind them are not. Gian Carlo Burlotto purchased the cellar and several vineyard parcels in 2013, formally separating the wine operation from the broader family farm and establishing Cascina Massara as a standalone estate. His son Gianluca works alongside him; his daughter Claudia joined in 2022.
Gian Carlo spent the 1970s specializing in cellar work while his brothers managed the vineyards. That division gave him a practical understanding of how Verduno's Nebbiolo behaves between fermentation and bottling, and it is reflected in an approach to winemaking that favors long wood ageing in large vats over technological intervention.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Verduno sits at the northwestern end of the Barolo production zone, between La Morra to the south and the Roero hills across the Tanaro river to the north. It is one of the smaller Barolo communes, producing a modest share of total appellation output. Wines labeled Barolo del Comune di Verduno carry the commune name on the label, allowing the producer to signal the geographic source directly.
The geology here is clay-limestone, cooler and lighter than the compact Helvetian clay of Castiglione Falletto or the dense Tortonian marl of Serralunga d'Alba to the southeast. That geological difference is legible in the glass: Verduno Barolo tends toward finer tannin and a lighter body than wines from the heavier southern communes. Monvigliero, Verduno's most cited vineyard, sits on a southeast-facing slope and is consistently associated with this lighter, fine-grained character.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
Fermentation for Barolo takes place in temperature-controlled open stainless-steel vats. The maceration runs approximately 15 to 20 days with pumping over and without submerged cap or punching down, keeping the extraction relatively gentle for a grape as tannic as Nebbiolo. Malolactic fermentation completes in stainless steel. The wine then moves into large wooden vats, where it ages for 36 months before bottling. No small barriques are used; the large-format botti allow slow oxygen exchange without adding oak flavour or tannin.
The underground ageing room keeps the Barolo in naturally conditioned air, without mechanical temperature or humidity control. The two-floor cellar above separates winemaking, ageing, bottling, and storage into dedicated areas.
Wines to know
The range in view
The range divides clearly into two tiers: everyday Langhe wines and three Barolos that step up in weight and ageing requirement.
Verduno Pelaverga is the estate's most immediately distinctive bottle. Pelaverga Piccolo is a thin-skinned red grape with naturally low tannin, bright acidity, vivid cherry and strawberry fruit, and a characteristic white-pepper note on the finish. It drinks lighter than any of the Nebbiolo wines and is best enjoyed young.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Start with the Barolo del Comune di Verduno. It is a DOCG Barolo built from Nebbiolo grown across three hill sites within the commune, aged 36 months in large wooden vats, and designed to show what Verduno's clay-limestone ground does to the grape before any single-vineyard character enters the picture. The wine opens with dried roses and red fruit, settles into a firm mid-palate, and finishes with the clean, high acidity that marks Verduno Nebbiolo. It is approachable earlier than the cru bottlings and costs less, but it carries the full Barolo character: tannin, acidity, and the development arc that comes with 36 months in botti grandi.