Cannubi
These posts on individual vineyards are not intended to be comprehensive. Rather they are meant to impart my personal response when drinking wine from a vineyard that has some special meaning to me.
Cannubi is a vineyard of considerable prestige - probably the most in all of Italy. Witness -
The name Cannubi first appears on a bottle of wine in 1752 (though it is not clear where the contents came from). The name has been important to the region for a long time.
Some proprietors have set up signage along the road at the base of their plots, identifying their portion of the vineyard. This is rare in the Langhe.
James Suckling made a 30 minute movie in 2013 about the vineyard, during which several growers who own parcels in Cannubi describe the moment of signing the purchase agreement in otherworldly terms - “like touching the stars with my hand” (Sandrone) or “like I had touched heaven with my fingertips” (Chiarlo).
That the name Cannubi carries a reputation in Barolo is further evidenced of course by the lengths to which the Marchesi di Barolo have gone in recent years to maintain the expanded territory that is entitled to use the name. At issue is whether wines on three semi-contiguous but adjacent hills - and four named MGA vineyards - can label their wines simply as Cannubi or must include a suffix that identifies the wine as coming from one of these other slopes. Any vineyard worth litigating about must be special. The outcome will surely be determined by whether there is a need for some conformity in the wine coming from the site as defined (and if so how much) or whether it is enough that one grower used the name “Cannubi” expansively for more than 100 years to include wine from an adjacent slope (in particular the Cannubi Muscatel MGA) from which wines with a rather different profile are produced. Whether the wines actually taste the same is a contentious and subjective issue. How alike must the wines taste ? What if Valletta and San Lorenzo taste enough like the central part of the Cannubi hill but Muscatel and Boschis do not ? Are they all more similar than they are different ? To be sure, I have not drunk widely enough to know. But it does seem the hill to the north - known as Cannubi Boschis MGA - is unmistakedly a separate terrain if you have ever tried to walk between the two. There is a deep gully between them. The hill of Boschis is lower in altitude, especially in its northern section, and with more clay in the soil, resulting in wines that are richer and with more polished tannins. Very fine in their own right, but not quite the same. Yet if this were Burgundy would not historical naming custom carry sway ? Many single vineyards in Burgundy have quite different soils.
Looking towards the south from the middle part of Cannubi central - the small amphitheater in the foreground. The small house mid frame on the very left at the bottom of the slope on the road is Burlotto’s guesthouse, with his vines immediately above in Cannubi Valletta, so named because of the shallow valley running from top to bottom represented by the straight path. At the top of the frame the small triangular parcel of vines is in Cannubi San Lorenzo, which is in effect the highest part of Cannubi Valletta. Still shot from a video made by Arnaldo Rivera - part of a series ‘Le Grande Vigne”, which I highly recommend for a brief aerial visual tour of the vineyard..
The most important point perhaps is that even if the reputational identity of the central part of the hill is compromised by the Cannubi name being applied more widely, we the consumer today are not influenced by this. Thanks to the work of Alessandro Masnaghetti, we know where each grower’s plot is located. For example, we know the excellent wines of Sandrone or Francesco Rinaldi (mostly) or Fenocchio all come from the Boschis hill and the wines reflect this particular terroir. And the market finds it own price for each wine.
The vineyard meets all the criteria that are required of a great site - ideal height, steepness of slope, orientation and soils. The central part of the hill is indeed small - just under 20 hectares, a quarter which slips over the “wrong” side of the hill. If you are energetic you can walk from end to end in just a few minutes. But it is absolutely not a uniform slope and there are frequent variations of exposure along its length. So it’s quite hard to photograph in its entirety from ground level. There is a depression in its centre that creates a small amphitheater. It doesn’t have the even harmonious slope that makes a vineyard visually spectacular. See the pictures above and below.
The central part of Cannubi looking from above Cannubi Boschis
What gives Cannubi its identity is the high proportion of sand sized particles in the soil. Historically of course this meant that the vineyard drained well and so could produce viable wines in wet years. Being relatively low it is quite warm and ripens perhaps a week earlier than its neighbors. I have tasted it very seldom - and what I have tasted is mostly Burlotto’s interpretation. The sand seems to give a clean definition to the fruit aromas and tannins that are long but sharp. The overall effect is a wine that is precise in its aromatic profile, without excess weight but with an austere and initially insistent structure on the back end that needs a long time to unfurl. There is elegance and never an overwhelming power - to which the sand contributes - with a silky texture leading to a long somewhat strict finish. The fruit - apparently - can be both elegant and sensual at the same time. The tannins never so present as to give the sensation of scale or enormity to the wine. The presence of sand seems pretty consistent in its effect - with a high proportion of sand across different communes in the vineyards of Ravera di Monforte, Margheria and Rocche di Castiglione giving the resulting wines similar characteristics. Perhaps no coincidence that I love all of these particular vineyards especially.
Over the full five MGAs there are between 25 and 28 growers permitted to make a maximum in total of about 250,000 bottles of wine from each harvest. Some growers - notably Maria Teresa Mascarello and the Rinaldi sisters blend their grapes with other vineyards. The Cannubi labelled wine that sells for the highest price of late is I believe Burlotto’s interpretation - which actually comes from the Cannubi Valletta MGA. By his own admission, Fabio’s is not perhaps the best representation of the central part of Cannubi since his plot faces more directly to the east, and so is slightly cooler. Barale’s piece in the main section is unfortunately still from young vines. I am told Chiara Boschis’s wine is now less subjected to new oak than previously, but I have only had it once at the Cantina. Scavino, Altare, Einaudi, Chiarlo and Brezza among others have good plots in the central section. These wines may be of interest but I have not tasted them, with the exception of older vintages of Scavino which showed some oak.
Cannubi can also be found spelled Canubbi, apparently to assure the stress is on the letter “u”. According to the team at Chiarlo, the word means “wedding” - referring perhaps as they see it to the merging of soils in the vineyard.
The northern end of the central hill of Cannubi looking from Francesco Rinaldi’s vines in Cannubi Boschis on a rainy day, showing the separation between the hills.
Cannubi from the southern end. The foreground, up the the slight shift in exposition, is Cannubi Valletta. The netted section is Altare’s rented parcel in Cannubi