Ronchi, Barbaresco Riserva DOCG (2019) – Piemonte

2022 was a tight, tannic vintage across Barbaresco — one that punished shortcuts and rewarded patience in the cellar. Ronchi answers it in typical fashion: fermented with native yeasts and aged only in large Slavonian botti, with nothing added and nothing filtered out. The result is Barbaresco in its most unvarnished form, built on the same southeast-facing hillside the family has farmed for four generations.

THE GRAPE
100% Nebbiolo, from the same southeast-facing Ronchi cru — but only the estate's finest parcels and longest-held barrels make it into the Riserva, aged well beyond the standard Barbaresco requirement before release.

THE WINE
2019 was a vintage that rewarded patience across Barbaresco, and the Riserva treatment lets Ronchi's fruit show its full range. Black cherry, red currant and rose petal sit alongside licorice, sandalwood, leather and underbrush — a deep, luminous garnet-red wine with real aromatic complexity. Medium-plus in body, with ripe but firm tannins that give it that unmistakable Barbaresco backbone, and a finish that keeps going. This is Ronchi at its most serious: still tightly wound today, built to reward several more years in the cellar.

THE FOOD PAIRING
Braised beef, mushroom-forward dishes, roast game, or a proper aged Piemonte cheese course. Decant well ahead of time.

THE WINEMAKER
The Rocca family has lived inside the Ronchi vineyard for four generations, close enough that winemaker Giancarlo Rocca can walk from cellar door to vine row in under a minute. Farming here is done without pesticides or herbicides, entirely by hand, in a natural amphitheater bordered by the celebrated crus of Montestefano and Moccagatta. It's old-school Barbaresco made by people who never had a reason to modernise: fermentation with native yeasts, aging only in large Slavonian oak botti, bottles left unfined and unfiltered.