Cavallotto Vigna Scot Dolcetto d’Alba, Piedmont 2019

Cavallotto 2019 ‘Vigna Scot’ Dolcetto d’Alba, Dolcetto d’Alba, Piedmont, Italy

Established in 1948, Cavallotto was one of the first families of the area to bottle. The family farms one contiguous hiil, Bricco Boschis, in Castiglione Falletto. They are the sole owners of this hill and the only ones to bottle Bricco Boschis. The Cavallotto’s are firm believers in organic farming, they worked with the local university to develop methods that worked for their particular climate. They no longer use copper or sulfur in the vineyard, opting for essential oils of grapefruit seed and other less intrusive remedies to treat the vineyard. 

• Farming: Organic, certified
• Winemaker: Alfio Cavallotto
• Grape Varieties: Dolcetto   
• Soil / Terroir: Castiglione Falletto where the Cavallotto estate is located lies on the 'seam' between the two sides of the Barolo appellation and is a mix of white, yellow and grey marls, punctuated by layers of sand. The mix of soils gives the wine from this cru characteristics from both subzones
• Vinification: fermented with indigenous yeasts, macerated with submerged cap for 3-4 days.
• Aging:  In large Slavonian oak botti of 50 hl for 6 months, then in cement tanks for 6 months.
• Tasting Notes: shows classic notes of black fruit and tea-leaves, moderate tannin, and is fresh and delicious. 

The Cavallotto family were one of the first small bottlers in the Barolo zone, starting in 1948. In the last twenty years or so the Barolo appellation has seen a surge in popularity, going from being a niche wine to being one of the world's best-known fine wine areas, and at the same time undergoing a giant zig-zag in winemaking style between the two poles of 'traditional' and 'modern'. The Cavallotto family hasn't changed at all in this time; their wines were made by traditional methods 50 years ago, and they are still. Alfio, his brother Giuseppe, and their sister Laura are maintaining the quality set by their grandfather, father, and uncle, and also maintaining the long-standing practice of natural farming, in which they were a pioneer in their appellation.

Cavallotto: The Re-Emergence of One of Barolo’s Historic Estates