Prunotto Fiulot Barbera d'Asti DOCG

Harvested grapes were brought to the cellar, destemmed and crushed. Maceration on the skins took place over a period of 5 to 7 days at a temperature that did not exceed 28 °C (82 °F). The wine was racked and completed both alcoholic and malolactic fermentation before the winter season. Fiulot was aged in stainless steel vats before being bottled in spring.

Alfredo Prunotto founded his business in 1922, and was one of Piemonte’s most dynamic exporters until his retirement in 1956. The company passed then to Prunotto’s friend Beppe Colla, now a revered winemaker and one of the founding fathers of modern Piemonte. His defining moment was the decision in 1961 to bottle single-vineyard, or cru, wines from the finest sites – a practice that is now the norm in the region. Those wines were made from bought-in grapes, but in the 1990s the current owners, the Antinoris of Tuscany, extended the Prunotto holdings, including plots in the outstanding Bric Turot and Bussia vineyards.

The quality of the top wines goes without saying, but the rest of the range is made with equal aplomb. The style is modern without being exaggerated: freshness of aroma and approachability of structure are viewed as positives, but copious new oak is not. Indeed, the only wines that see the inside of a brand new barrique are the outstanding single vineyard Barberas.