La Ca’ Nova is a producer that sold their wines to Gaja (one of those rare, big-name Barbarescos) back in the day but have bottled under their own label for decades.
La Ca’ Nova is a producer that sold their wines to Gaja (one of those rare, big-name Barbarescos) back in the day but have bottled under their own label for decades.
As with many things Piedmont, we like to start our learning with Kerin O'Keefe, whose book, Barolo and Barbaresco, was a brilliant piece of work that happened to come out around five years before anyone seemed to care. She was an early proponent of Ca’ Nova, noting that the estate “has quietly been making outstanding, terroir-driven Barbarescos for generations” and calling their wines “quintessential Barbarescos.”
Antonio Galloni has also heaped praise on La Ca’ Nova. He called their 2016s “magical,” and said that readers who have not yet tasted from this estate owe it to themselves to do so.
So how do you get “quintessential,” “magical” wines? Great farming in great terroir of course. And then doing as little as possible in the winery. Ca’ Nova is decidedly hands off, using wild yeasts and eschewing even temperature control. Barrels are large and neutral and untoasted (one quirk is that the wood for the barrels is sourced from Austria rather than Croatia, where you find the commonly used Slavonian oak) These are really wines that make themselves, and yet they end up remarkably clean, pure and even polished.
