It is 1971 when Armando Parusso decides to bottle his wine for the first time. Until then his family had dedicated himself to breeding of cattle and agriculture, and the wine obtained from the vineyards of the Cascina Rovella in the busia in Monforte d’Alba, in the heart of the Langhe, was drunk in the family or given to some friends. It is at that moment that a family of farmers turns into a family of winemakers and begins a story that in just over half a century has written very interested pages in the territory of Barolo.
Today the Parusso company manages 28 hectares of vineyards in the municipalities of Monforte d’Alba and Castiglione Falletto. It is led by the children of Armando, Marco and Tiziana, who make use of the collaboration of ten people and the new generation is ready, with the children of the two brothers who have already appeared in the company.
The production philosophy pushes a lot on respect for the territory and the symbiosis between man and nature. The lands are treated with the highest quality humus, what makes it well ventilated, alive, nourishing. The earth between rows is inserted so that the screws are stimulated to produce longer roots that makes plants healthier and resistant to climate change. To the most traditional techniques, which have never been abandoned, in recent years the microzonation has been joined, the studies of the individual soils that allows you to differentiate the work in the vineyard on each of them to obtain the best result. The harvest is rigorously manual and tends to be made rather late to bring ripe and fruit grapes to the cellar.
The pride of Parusso are certainly the Cru, which are three: the busia, with marly, sandstone soils, gives life to particularly fine and elegant wines. Mosconi, in Monforte d’Alba, is richer in tuff and guarantees wines a greater structure and power. Mariondino in Castiglione Falletto, on maid and sandstone soils and a little sandy, makes the wines spiced and slightly unconventional.
The wine list naturally enhances these differences. I recently tasted two vintages from Barolo Bussia, 2019 and 2020, which matures 18 months in small oak barrels in contact with indigenous yeasts. It is an infinite class wine, with a deep ruby color with grenades, with a red fruit nose, spices and a really pleasant balsamic wave and a silky mouth, with really velvety tannins. In particular, the 2019 vintage confirms superlative, the 2020 has yet to make the bones but also seems to be started on levels of excellence.
I also tasted the 2015 vintage of Barolo Busia Riserva Oro Vigna Rocche, a masterpiece of complexity and aromatic wealth, especially with that final on the nose (which returns to the mouth), of white truffle and tobacco. A great wine, almost from meditation.
In paper there are also Barolo Mosconi, Barolo Mariondino, the other two “gold” reserves (produced only in some vintages) vineyard Munie and Perfrancesco, the assembly Barolo between the various areas, the Langhe Doc Nebbiolo, the Barbera d’Alba DOC, the Dolba DOC, the Langhe Bianco Doc Rovella based on Sauvignon, the Langhe DOC white and the very interesting method and the very interesting method and the very interesting methods Classic, which resumes the historic tradition of sparkling wine of the Nebbiolo base, which also conquered the not yet American president Thomas Jefferson visiting Piedmont at the end of the eighteenth century: there is a classic version and a rosé both with 36 months of parking on the yeasts. A classic extra brut method 100 months from true fans is also produced.