Olek Bondonio La Berchialla ‘Roncagliette’ 2022
Olek Bondonio La Berchialla ‘Roncagliette’ 2022
Regular price
$9499
$94.99
/
This vineyard abuts Gaja's famed Sori Tildin site; Organic, some biodynamic practices. 100% Nebbiolo from Roncagliette: 50 year-old vines, planted on very heavy clay on top of blue marl, 350m elevation. Fermented in concrete with two months on the skins (submerged cap), then pressed off and moved to large botti for longer élevage (usually two years). Unfined, unfiltered, with moderate amounts of SO2 (10-20ppm max) added just before bottling. This is the powerhouse wine of the domaine, with a palate saturated in black fruit and a highly mineral core, but it never loses its sense of freshness or drinkability.
Olek Bondonio
It’s not an exaggeration to say that Olek Bondonio stands apart from much of the Piedmont scene, especially in Barbaresco. There’s no artifice about at the property, heck, there is no tasting room! Olek works and lives at his family’s 200-year-old farmhouse, La Berchialla, where tradition is still alive and well: the botti for aging wine occupy the ground floor once used for cattle while the family had lived directly above on the next floor. His wines come from three celebrated vineyards, some of which have been in his family for two centuries. One ancestor, General Guglielmo Como, even helped establish Barbaresco’s “Corporate Wine Cellar,” known today as Produttori del Barbaresco.
Despite this pedigree—and holdings that include Roncagliette, right beside Gaja’s legendary Sorì Tildin—Olek’s path to winemaking wasn’t a foregone conclusion. It was his mother who urged him to pursue it: if he wanted to make wine from the family’s vines, she told him, he should. First came years of tending the vineyards and learning their personalities, then in 2005 he vinified his first small vintage.
Twenty years on, Bondonio’s philosophy is unmistakable. He farms without chemicals, incorporates some biodynamic methods, and keeps interventions in the cellar to a minimum. His focus remains squarely on the vineyards themselves—sites he farms personally, and others he has patiently acquired, like Starderi and Altavilla. These parcels often came from elderly villagers who would never sell to outsiders, but trusted Olek enough to pass them on.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that Olek Bondonio stands apart from much of the Piedmont scene, especially in Barbaresco. There’s no artifice about at the property, heck, there is no tasting room! Olek works and lives at his family’s 200-year-old farmhouse, La Berchialla, where tradition is still alive and well: the botti for aging wine occupy the ground floor once used for cattle while the family had lived directly above on the next floor. His wines come from three celebrated vineyards, some of which have been in his family for two centuries. One ancestor, General Guglielmo Como, even helped establish Barbaresco’s “Corporate Wine Cellar,” known today as Produttori del Barbaresco.
Despite this pedigree—and holdings that include Roncagliette, right beside Gaja’s legendary Sorì Tildin—Olek’s path to winemaking wasn’t a foregone conclusion. It was his mother who urged him to pursue it: if he wanted to make wine from the family’s vines, she told him, he should. First came years of tending the vineyards and learning their personalities, then in 2005 he vinified his first small vintage.
Twenty years on, Bondonio’s philosophy is unmistakable. He farms without chemicals, incorporates some biodynamic methods, and keeps interventions in the cellar to a minimum. His focus remains squarely on the vineyards themselves—sites he farms personally, and others he has patiently acquired, like Starderi and Altavilla. These parcels often came from elderly villagers who would never sell to outsiders, but trusted Olek enough to pass them on.
