Lorenzo Accomasso: End of an Era
9/9/25 -
As with so much in my love for Barolo, I have to thank Gregory Dal Piaz for introducing me to Lorenzo Accomasso. I was lucky to visit several times with Accomasso, each time an invigorating and also an exhausting experience. He liked to talk, and talk, and talk; often I found him hard to follow – my Italian is so-so, and he didn’t always speak Italian, but instead would slip into Piemontese, which is incomprehensible to an outsider. But I love his wines, and by virtue of his long history (70+ harvests) he provided a link to the Barolo of the past which I never experienced – the time before barriques, before 21st century tourism. What was always clear was his amazing energy and love for his work, and his devotion to his territory.
For years I have thought that a reasonable parallel could be made between Marius Gentaz and Lorenzo Accomasso. I don’t want to over-define or exaggerate this, but they both had very small operations, they both stuck resolutely to the old manner of making wine, and those wines! It’s true that there may be some unpredictability from bottle to bottle, but when one hits there’s nothing, nothing that even gets close.
Lorenzo Accomasso passed-away this summer, well into his nineties. Some relatives are keeping the lights on for now, but it’s the end of an era, again.
-Jamie Wolff
