Elio Altare
About Elio Altare
Few producers in any region on Earth can lay claim to having had such an impact on the style of wine in the area as Elio Altare. A founding member of the “Barolo Boys” group, made world-famous by the documentary of the same name, the renown and esteem in which Barolo is rightly held around the globe is due in no small part to this man and his friends.
A distant memory for numerous oenophiles, some may remember the standing and style of Barolo in the 1970s as drastically removed from its current status as the “King of Italian Wine”. An unknown quantity outside of its home region, Barolo was an austere, rustic and often flawed wine destined to be hidden in dark cellars for decades before its cork could even be approached. There were, of course, legendary wines from this period, but they were by all accounts few and far between, and thanks to rather blasé approaches in both the vineyard and towards winery conditions as much down to luck as skill.
This paints a bleak picture for the emerging generation of ambitious, energetic and highly talented young winemakers in the region, greeted by the prospect of inheriting family estates comprised of overgrown vineyards, ramshackle wineries and wines which couldn’t be drunk for 20 years! Change was in the air, and following a series of trips by these youthful vignerons to the legendary Domaines and vineyards of Burgundy, a rigorous approach to vineyard management and an unrelenting pursuit of winemaking perfection came home to Barolo.
