Chardonnay

Luigi Baudana

The Luigi Baudana winery is located in the small village of Baudana, just a mile before climbing the winding road heading to the hilltop town of Serralunga d’Alba, one of the most celebrated Barolo cru.  The history of this winery starts around the turn of the XIX century when Luigi’s grandfather planted the first small vineyard in the Cerretta area. Luigi’s father Lorenso, took over the property and continued to sell the grapes to larger, more established producers.

The real resurgence of the winery took place in 1975 when Luigi and his wife Fiorina took over the winery and purchased additional small parcels of vineyards. From 1980 to 1991 Luigi and Fiorina worked at the Enoteca Regionale in Grinzane. It was around that time that they decided to devote themselves full time to the family estate of about 10 acres. Most the acres are planted to Nebbiolo, Barbera, Dolcetto and a tiny vineyard planted to Chardonnay.

The village elders use to tell that the larger producers of Barolo were always willing to pay a little extra for the grapes grown in this area and rarely budged on the price. Sometimes they were willing to pay more for those grapes than the grapes grown in their own area. The reason for such generosity lied in the special qualities of the grapes, mostly Nebbiolo, grown on these hills, specifically in the areas of Cerretta and Baudana. The combination of soil, exposure, altitude and microclimate give the Cerretta and Baudana wines, a special quality that has made the whole region famous around the world. The Barolos of these two areas are specially suited for aging.