Why it matters
The producer
The Roggero family has bottled wine under its own label from a hill above La Morra since 1923. In a zone where most growers sold their harvest in bulk well into the second half of the twentieth century, that early independence is not a small fact: it means the estate built its name around a named place before the Langhe became the market force it is today.
The property takes its name from the Bricco San Biagio hill, and so does Barolo Bricco San Biagio. Giovanni Roggero, son of founder Giacomo, was among the first producers in the zone to treat vine growing as a primary specialization rather than a sideline, and the current generation carries that focus forward in a divided arrangement that fits the scale: Davide manages vineyards and plant-health work, Gianluca handles winemaking, and Tiziana manages commerce, communication and hospitality. Giovanni coordinates. Twenty-two hectares across six named vineyard sites in La Morra, and one parcel in Treiso acquired for Barbaresco production in 2001.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
La Morra is a commune in the southern Langhe, inside the Barolo DOCG zone, which covers eleven communes in the hills south and west of Alba. The Barolo zone is planted almost entirely in Nebbiolo, and the commune of La Morra sits on the western side of that zone, where soils run to calcareous Tortonian clay marls. Those marls produce Barolo that tends to be more aromatic and earlier-opening than the wines from the sandstone-heavy soils of Serralunga d'Alba to the east.
The six La Morra vineyard sites San Biagio farms are designated MGAs, Menzioni Geografiche Aggiuntive, the official Barolo sub-zone classification introduced in 2010 that allows a producer to name a specific vineyard on the label. Bricco San Biagio is the home MGA, the hill the estate is built on. The Treiso parcel, where the Barbaresco Montersino comes from, sits in a different DOCG entirely: higher, cooler, and across the Tanaro river from the La Morra positions.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
San Biagio runs two cellar tracks, each matched to a different wine style.
Barolo matures in large and medium oak casks in the 1923 farmhouse cellar. Large-format oak at this scale means slower oxygen exchange and longer maturation: the Nebbiolo holds its tannic grip for longer and the oak contributes less flavour than barrel ageing in smaller casks would. The approach is classical for La Morra and consistent with wines that need time in bottle after release.
Wines to know
The range in view
San Biagio builds its range across three appellations and two grapes.
Barolo Bricco San Biagio is the estate's home wine: 100% Nebbiolo from the single MGA that shares the estate's name. The 2017 carries spice and balsamic character on the nose, with prominent sweet tannins in the mouth and a finish that runs through liquorice, tobacco and tar. Those tar and tobacco notes are classic Nebbiolo on calcareous clay, amplified by the long period in large oak casks. The wine is built for the medium term.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Start with the Barolo Bricco San Biagio. It is the wine that holds every element of San Biagio's work in one bottle: named place, long-farmed calcareous clay, 100% Nebbiolo, and patient maturation in the 1923 farmhouse cellar in large oak casks. The nose is aromatic and lifted in the La Morra style, the tannins have the texture of good Barolo at a few years of age, and the finish runs long through tar, liquorice and dried spice. Open it with food, or lay it down for another five years and come back to find it looser and more giving. Either way, it explains what the hill produces and what the Roggero cellar does with it.