Why it matters
The producer
Ratti sits at Frazione Annunziata in La Morra, a village on the northwestern edge of the Barolo zone in Piemonte. The cellar has been at this address since Renato Ratti returned to Italy in 1965, bought a parcel in the Marcenasco locality of La Morra, and bottled his first Barolo under his own name. What made that act unusual was not the wine itself but the argument it carried: Renato Ratti believed that Barolo's individual subzones produced wines worth distinguishing, and he drew a physical map to prove it.
That map changed how Barolo was understood. Before it, the appellation's growers blended across communes and sold without vineyard attribution. Renato Ratti published the first systematic cartographic division of the zone, identifying subzones by name, soil type, and character. The Menzione Geografica Aggiuntiva system that now governs vineyard labelling across Barolo came decades later, but the conceptual ground was prepared by that early printed map.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
La Morra is the westernmost of Barolo's main communes, sitting on calcareous-clay soils that give Nebbiolo a softer, rounder character than the Helvetian marl and sandstone of Serralunga d'Alba or the compact Tortonian soils of Castiglione Falletto. Wine from La Morra tends to open earlier, with fuller fruit and less severe tannin in youth, though it still ages for decades on good vintages. Marcenasco is a locality within La Morra, and the Barolo that carries its name reflects this commune character: Nebbiolo grown on calcareous clay, vinified and then given time in bottle before release.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
The Marcenasco vineyard in La Morra is Ratti's founding parcel and the source for the estate's anchor Barolo. Serradenari comes from a higher-altitude La Morra site that produces a Barolo with different fruit weight and lift. Barbera d'Alba and Dolcetto d'Alba are drawn from La Morra vineyards. Brigata, the Langhe Chardonnay, comes from Mango. Moscato d'Asti from Costigliole d'Asti and Dogliani Dolcetto from the southernmost estate complete the range.
Integrated and sustainable farming governs all six sites. The cellar at Frazione Annunziata was rebuilt in 2005, the new construction designed to follow the hill's profile so that the building recedes into the slope rather than projecting above it. Ratti's stated cellar philosophy treats bottle ageing as central: wines are held before release to allow Nebbiolo's tannin to settle and the wine's parts to knit, preserving smoothness and the capacity to develop over time.
Wines to know
The range in view
Two Barolo DOCG wines anchor the range. Marcenasco is made entirely from Nebbiolo grown at the founding La Morra site, producing a Barolo with the fuller, rounder profile typical of calcareous-clay ground: dried rose petals and tar on the nose, red cherry and tobacco on the palate, with firm tannin that softens after several years in bottle. Serradenari comes from a higher La Morra site and shows a more vertical, floral character, with tighter fruit and bright acidity. The 2019 vintage was the first; the wine reached the market in 2023.
Brigata Chardonnay is lighter in texture, with white peach and lemon, a clean acid line, and a lightly creamy mid-palate from lees contact. Barbera d'Alba is richer in colour and fruit, high in acidity, and built for the table rather than the cellar. Moscato d'Asti is delicate and sweet, with low alcohol and persistent floral and stone-fruit perfume.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Barolo DOCG Marcenasco is the founding wine and the clearest way into this estate. It is 100 percent Nebbiolo from the La Morra parcel that Renato Ratti bought in 1965, the same site that prompted the whole cartographic argument about Barolo's subzones. In the glass it gives dried roses, tar, and red cherry, with firm but not brutal tannin, high acidity that runs through to a long dry finish, and the mineral depth that develops with time. La Morra's calcareous clay makes it more approachable in youth than Barolos from the sandstone communes, which means it does not need decades of patience to drink well, though it has the constitution to age.