Cellar and vineyards

Cornarea keeps a well defined philosophy in wine making: we use modern technology, but at the same time respect tradition, thus aiming at preserving, in our wines, the taste and the fragrance of special grapes like Arneis and Nebbiolo. Thanks to the experience acquired through time, Piero and Gian Nicola Bovone, the winery enologists, follow with passion all the wine-making steps, obtaining wines with a strong character.

Roero Arneis Cornarea is produced in the winery in the most possible delicate way: the grapes are picked and put into crates, thereafter they are poured in the wine press, still with their stalks; the pressing, which is effected with a low pressure air lung, is soft; the must ferments in pressure tanks with controlled temperature and all the wine making process, including bottling, takes place in a controlled environment, which allows to have a very light or absent fining. We are very careful to avoid an excessive use of sulphorose acid. Nebbiolo d’Alba and Roero are produced following the traditional method, using big barrels. Passito Tarasco rests for four years in old oak barrels where, year after year, the wine level in the barriques decreases due to natural evaporation. They are never filled up so that a prolongued contact with oxygen will add to the wine a complex and unique mix of perfumes and tastes. The vineyards are laboured with mechanical means thus avoiding the use of pesticides and respecting the biological cycle of plants growth; the rows are cleared from grass, grapes are selected and then picked rigorously by hand. The Roero ground is formed by sandstones, sedimentary rocks of sea orgin, mixed with limestone, clay and sands that go back to the Pliocene (5 million years ago). Among the soft clods of the Roero soil, still now, it is possible to find sea fossils. A high percentage of magnesium in the Cornarea soil gives our wines a typical mineral content and a high aging versatility.

In the Roero area, the Cornarea vineyards have a rare and precious characteristic: they extend in an only compact body that includes the hill with the same name, on the top of which Villa Cornarea is to be found. For this reason our wine producing company has taken up the name of the historical Cornarea Hill, so called since the year 1000. The vineyards were planted by the Bovone family between 1975 and 1978.

Altogether it is 12 hectares of Arneis that represent the first real effort to recover this ancient vine that, by then, had almost entirely disappeared and 3 hectares of Nebbiolo, historical vine both of the Roero and Langhe region. Our vineyards are all older than 35 years and are in the best phase of their production from a quality point of view. The vineyards are laboured with mechanical means thus avoiding the use of pesticides and respecting the biological cycle of plants growth; the rows are cleared from grass, grapes are selected and then picked rigorously by hand. The Roero ground is formed by sandstones, sedimentary rocks of sea orgin, mixed with limestone, clay and sands that go back to the Pliocene (5 million years ago). Among the soft clods of the Roero soil, still now, it is possible to find sea fossils. A high percentage of magnesium in the Cornarea soil gives our wines a typical mineral content and a high aging versatility.