Why it matters
The producer
Beppe Colla spent forty years running Prunotto in Alba before founding Poderi Colla in 1994 with his younger brother Tino and daughter Federica. That tenure at Prunotto left a mark on Piedmontese winemaking. Beppe was among the first producers in the zone to vinify individual crus separately and print vineyard names on labels, a practice that spread across Barolo and Barbaresco over the decades that followed. When he left and built his own estate, the founding approach was the same: one vineyard, one wine.
The family now farms 28 hectares across four distinct properties in the Langhe. Tino's son Pietro joined in 2006, extending the family operation into a third generation. Each property carries a different set of grapes and appellations, but the range is unified by the same cellar approach: traditional, hands-off, and built for patience.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
The four Poderi Colla estates span three distinct Piemonte appellations. Dardi Le Rose sits in Bussia, the prominent vineyard area within the commune of Monforte d'Alba, one of the five DOCG Barolo communes. Six of the eight hectares there are planted exclusively to Nebbiolo, the grape that must make Barolo by law. The altitude and aspect of Bussia give Nebbiolo long hang time and the gradual tannin development that defines Barolo's character.
Bussia in Monforte d'Alba is composed of Helvetian calcareous marl. Roncaglie's Barbaresco soils are Tortonian in origin, younger and sandier than Bussia, which tends to produce Barbaresco with softer tannins and more forward fruit in its early years. Cascina del Drago's vineyards were planted between 1969 and 1999, giving the oldest parcels vine age that concentrates flavour in the Dolcetto and Nebbiolo used for Bricco del Drago.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
Chemicals are kept out of the vineyards. Weed control is mechanical, fertiliser use is occasional and primarily organic, and treatments are applied only when needed. The approach keeps the soil active and the vine root systems working deeper into the subsoil, which concentrates extract and preserves the site character that the cru philosophy depends on.
In the cellar, the approach is long maceration, which draws colour, tannin, and aromatic complexity from the Nebbiolo skins over an extended contact period. The wines then age in large Slavonian oak casks rather than small barriques. Large-format casks allow slow, gentle oxidation without adding oak flavour, so the Slavonian wood transmits air rather than wood character. No filtration means the wine reaches the bottle with its full texture and aromatic range intact. The result in Nebbiolo is a wine with firm, gripping tannin in youth that slowly integrates toward a long, supple finish over years in bottle.
Wines to know
The range in view
The Barolo Bussia Dardi Le Rose is pure Nebbiolo from six hectares in Monforte d'Alba. On the nose it carries dried rose, red cherry, and liquorice, the aromatic signature of Nebbiolo grown on calcareous marl at altitude. The palate is rich and full, with the long maceration producing tannins that emerge as dense but not coarse, supported by the acidity. This is a wine that needs eight to ten years to open fully.
The Barbaresco Roncaglie is also pure Nebbiolo, from the estate's Treiso-zone vineyard on a cru documented in the written record since 1800. The wine is aged in large Slavonian casks without filtration. It shares Barolo's aromatic register, rose and red fruit with an iron note, but the Tortonian soils of Roncaglie give it a slightly more open, earlier-accessible character than the Bussia Barolo, though it still rewards four to six years of cellaring.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Barolo Bussia Dardi Le Rose. Six hectares of Nebbiolo in Monforte d'Alba, long maceration, large Slavonian casks, no filtration, no shortcut. In the glass it shows dried rose and red cherry on the nose, a rich and firmly tannic palate with the concentrated mid-palate weight that Bussia marl delivers, and a long finish where liquorice and mineral detail settle in. It needs time: a decade from a good vintage before it fully gives way. Start here to understand what Beppe Colla built the estate around, and what the cru principle looks like when the vineyard is allowed to speak without the cellar getting in the way.