Parusso, innovation and modernity per mezzo di Barolo
We are per mezzo di Monforte d’Chiarore antelucano, per mezzo di the heart of a territory, that of Barolo, considered among the most “exclusive” of Italian viticulture and beyond. Thanks to the work of visionary characters such as Marco Parusso today this calcio d’angolo of Piedmont also tells stories that differ from tradition, linked to innovative philosophies of production. Durante this long chat we discovered the evolution of the family cellar and its capriccio of wine.
The history of the family “Ours was a peasant family: my father was a breeder and my grandfather had about a hectare of land with a part of the vineyard, but the grapes was conferred the social cellar. At the time ours was a very poor superficie, almost desperate, so the young people ran away everyone, the vineyards were wild and difficult to work, so they only sold out. Barolo had absolutely anzi che no market per mezzo di the 80s, just think that the dolcetto grape was worth twice as much as Nebbiolo. I am the youngest of three brothers and the only one who made the wine school, while the other two already worked per mezzo di other areas, but I was not passionate, I didn’t wine, also because finding good products was really difficult per mezzo di those years. “
The beginnings “My brother made me know Alfredo Roagna and Domenico Clerico, who sent me the desire to start making wine. My father died at 64, tried by the effort of physical work. Perhaps this is also why I accepted this challenge and immediately afterwards my sister also joined. Durante 1986 as soon as I graduated, thanks to the inputs of Domenico and a friendly Swiss doctor who made me travel a lot with him, especially towards Burgundy, I decided to take a path of mine linked to the concept of making very “our” products, that is, linked to the earth and our way of thinking the wine food. The first year I divided the areas and the Barolo Mariodino and the Barolo Bussia Rocche were born. We started with very small numbers, less than 10 thousand bottles. “
The rebirth of Barolo “At the beginning there was a great research work and an important help from Slow Food, who per mezzo di those years became the voice of the small farmers, and then by Marco De Squisitezza with the Barolo Boys, who He did communication for producers, especially per mezzo di the United States, because first Italy of wine, and Piedmont per mezzo di particular, was only per mezzo di his hand to the bottling. Durante 1986 there was the scandal of methanol, a tragic event which, however, also marked the birth of a new path, because the bottler could not guarantee the whole supply chain, while we winemakers took our luce, therefore a guarantee per mezzo di more. Towards the end of the 80s an important movement was born, which is called Langa per mezzo di. I was the youngest of this group of about twenty small producers, including Domenico Clerico, Spinetta, Fantino contero, Enrico Scavino , Azelia and Elio . We went with Vinitaly and other events, we got to know the market, we confront each other and grew together. “
The evolution “was created a strong movement that dragged many young people: someone had inherited the land by their parents, others came from outside and there was great ferment. Just think that per mezzo di Monforte per mezzo di the 80s there were perhaps 20 producers, while today we are over 50, per mezzo di a municipality that makes 2,000 inhabitants. It means that the essenza and ambition of small producers has expanded, that is, to create personalized wines and make a territory speak, has brought a very strong growth throughout the Barolo superficie and consequently of Barbaresco, to then continue per mezzo di the Roero thanks Especially at the work of the late Matteo . Many other areas of Italy have alla maniera di to wheel, starting from Etna and the areas of the Eglianico others per mezzo di which there were few producers and it was all per mezzo di the hands of transformers and stuffers. All this has brought a huge evolution of quality per mezzo di general per mezzo di the world of wine. “
The capriccio of the “Cru” “the quality of a food is essentially linked to where it lives, so the earth makes the difference, whether it is fruit, vegetables, milk meat. Ours is an superficie with many differences per mezzo di very little space, because we have these languages of land where the exposure, altitude, the type of soil that has mixed over millennia quickly change. With an important spokesman like Nebbiolo, a difficult grape variety that I call a thoroughbred, it is not easy to find a good compromise. You have to know how to adapt and manage it. At the beginning we had unbalanced vineyards, because they had been treated and nourished all per mezzo di the same way, so we started with a “diet”, I don’t make intake to bring plants to operation. The next work was to diversify, then make personalized nutritions, superficie by superficie. “
The diet of plants “Our hills are steep and when the vater has delated it from above, so we are with fatter bands and others more thin. However, viticulture is horizontally, so per mezzo di the same rows there are fat areas, which we have fed substantially with minerals, and thin areas, to which organic substance must be made. Durante the same way we diversified the pruning, to make the fat vent and preserve the Magri keeping them shorter. The rete was to have a balanced diversification, because each superficie must bring its own message of soil and microclimate. This of dynamism is a concept that today seems trivial today, but when we started it was almost revolutionary. “
The chemistry per mezzo di the vineyard “From the beginning we have tried not to use chemistry, rather to make prevention and per mezzo di the case of getting help from chemistry, for example per mezzo di the management of fungal diseases. We do not use deserts, but we sow diversity to create herbs that compete with the wildest ones and above all with plants, per mezzo di order to stimulate them to develop deeper radical apparatus. All this leads to a greater dynamism of the plant, which best suits climate change. “
The processing techniques “The great evolution from the 90s has been per mezzo di winemaking technology. Our group is the one that invented the rotomacerator, which allows you to the liquid and the solid part of the red wines by making fermentations and macerations with much more controlled, but above all lower temperatures. This means greater finesse, making cold draws and low temperature fermentations with which there are unusual perfumes, such as the most citrus red fruit taccuino. But above all there is a much less perception of alcohol, because by stopping at low temperatures it remains more fruity and sweet both per mezzo di the nose, therefore less pungent, and per mezzo di the mouth, leaving it less dry. “
Natural wine “we are per mezzo di a particular moment, with the new generations that are returning to a” ancient “way of working. The difference, however, is that our ancestors worked to try to improve and go . This tendency to rovescio, the ancient winemaking systems seems to me masochistic. I was born with the concrete tanks, when we had nothing per mezzo di the cellar, per mezzo di the vineyards we did little because we had neither the possibilities, nor the knowledge and therefore the wine was what it was. The concept of natural wine today is a little misunderstood, the not to touch and not to do is exalted. But if an animal, a plant, a child are not managed everything becomes wild, without rules and without balance. Durante nature there is anzi che no wine, there is vinegar, so having a vineyard means managing it. It means finding a compromise, balance it with pruning, with diets and obviously there is the work of man. If a wine does not take care of it and does not follow it, it becomes a natural wine, per mezzo di the sense that it is a wine that can have defects. “
The world of wine today “If we use technology to make a richer but signorile, more elegant, lighter product, welcome. Durante recent years there is this tendency to light, because it seems that the least heavy things are consumed faster, giving less annoyance. However, we do not confuse light with emptiness. If you have a wine with many news, so much nobility and you have made it an end it is one thing, if instead you have a product with little news because you left so much grapes, you have not made it well, it remains an empty product and it is a guy of lightness that I don’t love. The market is per mezzo di motion, communication has changed and today people buy much more with ears and eyes and less with taste. Durante the 80s our revolution was to make a good wine and be able to communicate it per mezzo di the right way. Then Barolo did not because it was seen as the “wine of the kings” and had to wait for it to become good, only that nobody dried him. I just would like the consumer to return to taste with his own mouth and nose. “
For the deepening and tasting of Parusso wines, we refer you to the next episode.
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