2016 Barbaresco Riserva (Nòtu andava a tartufi senza il cane)

Fabio Gea is originally a geologist by trade and has traveled around the world to study agriculture and soil conditions, but his worldview is a constant chaos of new ideas and peculiar whims making him balance somewhere between a genius and a madman.

Fabio is neither an ecologist nor a biodynamic farmer but has gradually developed his own sensitivity and approach to working in the vineyard heavily inspired by Masanobu Fukuoka. The cellar work is low-tech, manual and unmistakably Fabio. Stainless steel is gradually being phased out in favor of ceramics, glass, cement and wood. No temperature control, cultured yeast, fining or filtration, and the addition of sulphur is completely omitted for a large proportion of his cuvées.

His first vintage was 2009, and although Fabio Gea is still relatively unknown by the locals, he has become an icon outside the country’s borders in record time – and rightly so! The quality of his wines is undeniable, and while respecting traditions, they simultaneously test the boundaries to an extreme degree.