Why it matters
The producer
Fratelli Alessandria farms in Verduno, the smallest and northernmost of the eleven Barolo communes, and makes wine from two grapes that tell two entirely different stories about this corner of the Langhe. The Nebbiolo goes into two single-vineyard Barolos. The Pelaverga Piccolo goes into Verduno Pelaverga DOC, a grape almost entirely confined to this one commune and one of the most distinctive small-production reds in Piemonte.
The estate was founded in 1830 and farmed for over a century before releasing a bottle under its own label. King Carlo Alberto awarded the family agricultural prizes in 1843. The first commercial wine did not appear until 1978. That long delay is not a failure of ambition; it is the shape of a farming family that spent generations selling grapes before deciding the wine was worth bottling directly.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Verduno sits at the northern edge of the Barolo zone, where the hills flatten slightly and the soil shifts away from the Tortonian blue-grey clays that give Serralunga and Castiglione Falletto their density. The soils here drain well, and the resulting wines are aromatic.
The result on the label is Barolo with a different character, not a lesser one. Verduno Nebbiolo tends toward dried rose and citrus over dark fruit and grip. The commune is small enough that most producers farm it as a secondary address; Fratelli Alessandria has it as home ground.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
The Barolo aging program runs three years in old Slavonian oak casks, followed by two months in steel and six months in bottle before release. The casks are large format and almost entirely old, which means the wood is porous enough to allow slow micro-oxygenation but carries no new oak character. Tannins from Nebbiolo soften through this extended cask period without picking up vanilla, spice, or the toasty quality that smaller new barrels would add. What emerges is wine shaped by time and air rather than by wood flavour.
The choice to use old casks ninety percent of the time is also a choice about what the two vineyards do in the glass. Gramolere and San Lorenzo are farmed for contrast, and the cellar method is kept constant so that difference comes from site, not from different oak regimes.
Wines to know
The range in view
The range includes two single-vineyard Barolos, San Lorenzo and Gramolere, alongside Verduno Pelaverga Speziale, a Langhe Nebbiolo, and a Dolcetto d'Alba.
Barolo San Lorenzo comes from Verduno, and Gramolere is the second single-vineyard Barolo.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Verduno Pelaverga Speziale is the right first bottle. It costs less than the Barolos, opens immediately, and introduces the Verduno address through a grape almost no one has tried. The pepper character is immediate and precise: rotundone at a concentration high enough to register as black pepper before anything else. Then rose, then raspberry, then a clean finish with no tannic weight to negotiate. Served slightly cool, it works alongside food or without it.