Summary
La Spinetta in Castagnole delle Lanze is one of the best-known addresses in Piedmont – and one of the few estates you can recognise from a distance by the label alone: the rhinoceros after Albrecht Dürer's 1515 woodcut has adorned the Rivetti family's top bottles for decades. It all began with Moscato d'Asti; today uncompromising single-vineyard Barbarescos, a Barolo from Grinzane Cavour and Tuscan reds take centre stage. In total the family farms around 165 hectares in Piedmont and Tuscany and produces some 650,000 bottles a year.
History
The estate's roots reach back to the 1960s, when Giuseppe Rivetti – known as 'Pin' – and his wife Lidia farmed and grew vines in Castagnole delle Lanze. The step to their own bottled wine came in 1977 with a Moscato d'Asti. The Moscato wines Bricco Quaglia and Biancospino are still in the range today – they made La Spinetta's name in Italy early on, at a time when Moscato was widely seen as bulk wine.
Only in the 1980s did the first red follow, a Barbera d'Asti from the Ca' di Pian site. The estate's real reputation was built in 1989 by the blend 'Pin' of Barbera and Nebbiolo, named after the father: a dense, barrique-aged wine that put La Spinetta at the head of the movement which raised Barbera from everyday wine to serious red.
From the mid-1990s the single-vineyard Barbarescos followed, beginning with Gallina (1995), then Starderi and Valeirano. Around 2000 the family entered Barolo production with a property in Grinzane Cavour, and in 2001 came the move to Tuscany. In 2011 La Spinetta additionally took over the historic sparkling wine house Contratto in Canelli; since 2018 Timorasso from the Colli Tortonesi has also been made.
Location & Terroir
The home estate lies in Castagnole delle Lanze, around 15 kilometres south of Asti, where the Monferrato gives way to the Langhe. Moscato and Barbera vineyards shape the hills around the winery – roughly 70 hectares at this site alone. The soils consist mainly of calcareous marl, often with a high sand content, which gives the wines perfume and finesse.
The Barbaresco sites lie in the classic communes of the appellation: Gallina, Starderi and Bordini in Neive, Valeirano in Treiso. The differences are clear – Gallina, on pale, sand-rich calcareous marl, yields fragrant, elegant wines, while the bluish marl with a little clay in Starderi provides structure and grippy tannins. The Barolo comes from the Campè site in Grinzane Cavour.
In Tuscany the family has farmed vineyards in the province of Pisa since 2001, planted above all with Sangiovese and Vermentino – a distinctly warmer, more maritime terroir than Piedmont.
Style & Philosophy
La Spinetta belongs to those estates that were considered 'modernist' in the 1990s: short but intense extraction, careful selection in the vineyard, consistently low yields and ageing in barrique rather than exclusively in large casks. Over the years the style has calmed down – the wines today are built less around wood than around site character, while keeping their density and backbone.
In the vineyard the estate works close to nature, with cover crops between the rows and hand harvesting into small crates. The single-vineyard wines carry the designation 'Vürsù' and are only made in vintages that meet the standard. With Moscato d'Asti, La Spinetta takes an equally serious approach: light, delicately sparkling wines of under 6% alcohol that live off grape quality rather than residual sugar.
Notable Sites & Wines
The range runs from accessible everyday wines to the great Nebbiolo bottlings:
- Barbaresco Gallina (Neive) – the estate's first single vineyard, fragrant and elegant
- Barbaresco Starderi (Neive) – structured, with a firm tannic frame
- Barbaresco Valeirano (Treiso) – full of finesse and cooler in expression
- Barbaresco Bordini (Neive) – the more accessible entry into the Barbaresco range
- Barolo Campè (Grinzane Cavour) – the house Barolo
- 'Pin' – the Barbera and Nebbiolo blend created in 1989
- Barbera d'Asti Ca' di Pian – the estate's first red wine
- Moscato d'Asti Bricco Quaglia and Biancospino – the classics of the early years
Awards
La Spinetta is among Italy's most decorated producers. Over the years the estate has collected numerous Tre Bicchieri from Gambero Rosso – by widely reported counts around three dozen across its various labels, including the Barbaresco single vineyards and the Barbera-based 'Pin' several times over. Internationally, too, the house's Nebbiolo wines regularly earn high scores. Beyond the points, La Spinetta is regarded as one of the estates that did most to make Barbera and Moscato be taken seriously as wines in Piedmont.