Italy

Overlooked even by Piedmont enthusiasts until recently, Pierguido Busso quietly makes some of Barbaresco's most profound yet beautifully approachable wines at Cantina Piero Busso.While the Bussos have cultivated vines in Barbaresco since the 1950s, it was not until 1978 that Pierguido's father Piero stopped selling his family's Nebbiolo grapes and began making his own wine. Over the next two decades, Piero gradually added to the small parcel of land planted around the family winery in 'Albesani' by purchasing additional plots in 'Mondino' in 1985, 'Gallina' in 1999 and 'San Stunet' in 2000.Today, Pierguido farms 10ha of 25-to-80-year-old vines between some of the highest sites in Barbaresco's Neive and Treiso villages. He uses tressage – the difficult, highly skilled practice of braiding the vine canopy, pioneered by Lalou Bize-Leroy – to grow Langhe varieties with organic farming.Perfectly ripe fruit is carefully harvested by hand before undergoing long, slow native yeast fermentations of up to 60 days, followed by ageing in 25hl Slavonian oak barrels for 24 months. The estate's wines are bottled without fining or filtration.Made from young vineyards grown on richer soils in Neive, Busso's great value Langhe Nebbiolo encapsulates the estate's immediate, refined style, while the old-vine Barbera d'Alba 'Majano' combines juicy summer fruit and peppery freshness. Pierguido's site-specific Barbarescos are the estate's icons and the intensely flavoured yet polished 'Mondino' underscores why these wines are now among our favourites from the region.

Piero Busso

Wines

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