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Braida di Giacomo Bologna
Monferrato, Italy2 wines3.9 avg
The Asti estate that put Barbera on the international map. Founded 1961 in Rocchetta Tanaro by Giacomo Bologna, the man who proved Barbera could be a serious, age-worthy wine via cru selection, severe yield reduction, and French oak ageing. Now run by his widow Anna and children Raffaella and Giuseppe ('Beppe') Bologna.
Braida di Giacomo Bologna is the Asti estate widely credited with transforming Barbera from a high-volume table-wine grape into a serious, internationally collected variety.
Founded in 1961 by Giacomo Bologna in Rocchetta Tanaro, in the Basso Monferrato hills of Asti province. The name 'Braida' was the nickname of Giacomo's father Giuseppe, earned in his youth as a player of pallone elastico, and was also the name of the family's original Barbera plot.
Giacomo's contribution was three-fold: cru selection (treating Barbera vineyards as named, distinct sites), severe yield reduction, and ageing in small French oak barriques rather than the large botti grandi that dominated Piedmont at the time. The four landmark cuvées he built - La Monella (1961), Bricco dell'Uccellone (1982), Bricco della Bigotta (1985), and the late-harvest Ai Suma (1989) - became the modern Barbera template.
Giacomo died in December 1990, at 56. The estate is run today by his widow Anna with children Raffaella (sales/oenology) and Giuseppe ('Beppe') Bologna (winemaker/agronomy), with the fourth generation (Giacomo Bologna Jr.) now coming through.
The house style remains rooted in the original idea: Barbera taken seriously, in cru bottlings, with French oak doing the heavy structural lifting alongside the grape's signature acidity.
