Brovia: Tradition and Innovation
2/1/2025
[The Brea vineyard where the Brovia's Dolcetto and Barolo wines are produced from.]
It is no secret that we are fans of the incredible wines from the humble duo of Alex Sanchez and Elena Brovia of the eponymous estate in Castiglione Falleto. So when I was invited to a seminar at Rosenthal's office featuring their current offerings I was eager to hear all about these unique and extraordinary wines from the artisans that craft them.
The 160-year-old estate was founded in 1863 by Giacinto Brovia and has operated uninterrupted since, save for a 30 year pause caused by phylloxera and world wars. The modern iteration of the estate came about when Giacinto and Raffele, grandchildren of the founder, revived the wine production in 1953. Giacinto was a trained enologist who focused on winemaking side of the business and Raffele an agronomist who was in the vineyard tending the plots. For 50 years they worked in harmony with land until they passed the reins of the estate to Elena, Giacinto's daughter, and her husband Alex.
This past Thursday, I attended a Brovia seminar held by Rosenthal Wine Merchant with the producers Alex Sanchez and Elena Brovia (pictured above). Originally intended to be an "informal" tasting on the wines of Brovia it quickly evolved into a comprehensive discourse on the philosophy of the estate with Alex going into exacting detail on the current challenges being faced in the vineyard with the most recent vintages. Vintages like 2023 with abundant rain in the spring causes humidity problems in the vineyard, increasing risk of mildew and disease. The natural response is to de-leaf but this causes the grapes prone to sunburn later in the vintage. The landscape has changed but the response is the same, careful canopy management, pruning and minimal intervention. The more you manipulate the base material the farther you get from the land, Alex says, and it is this ideology that the duo endeavor to uphold. It is clear that this a labor of love not driven by maximizing profit, especially considering that their Freisa is planted in Villero, their Dolcetto in Brea, and Barbera in Garblet Sue. They could replant with Nebbiolo and make more Barolo but then they would lose a crucial part of what makes Piedmont's gastronomic culture so unique. Every single wine that comes out of the estate has a purity that speaks clearly the identity of the varietals and of the unique land that nurtures the vine.
The wines are are vinified in a classic style. The gently crushed grapes go into the fermentation tanks and, depending on variety, the juices ferment for a month or longer at temperatures between 28 and 30 degrees Celsius. The Baroli are aged in 30hl barrels of Slavonian and French origin while the other wines only see stainless steel.
Today we offer the new vintages of the estate's Dolcetto, Barbera, Nebbiolo d'Alba, Freisa as well as the inaugural vintage of Anterse, the estate's first venture into sparkling wine production. In addition, we are pleased to highlight the last of stock of 2023 Arneis, the undervalued but overperforming 2020 Barolo normale, and a small quantity of 2018 Garblet Sue. Finally, a small number of magnums are available, in case you missed the spectacular single vineyards bottlings last time.
A huge thank you to Alex Sanchez and Elena Brovia for their insight as well as their importer and distributor Rosenthal, who graciously provided technical information and photos for this email.
-Ranggy Tapia
