Barbaresco’s Paitin: Unlocking potential

May 24, 2022 · Alexander Turnbull

Alexander Turnbull on May 24, 2022

Paitin are one of the most storied properties of Barbaresco, and following significant investment in the cellars in 2010, have embarked on perhaps the most exciting chapter yet in the history of the estate.

The Pasquero-Elia family are able to trace their history all the way back to the late 1700s when the Elia side of the family owned a small bank based on the border of Neive and Castagnole. The land immediately surrounding the property, which the family farmed, was known locally as Paitin, giving birth to the winery we know today.

Benedetto Elia, clearly a visionary ahead of his time, purchased the “Sorí” (where the snow melts first, meaning full southern exposure and the best place to plant Nebbiolo vines) on the Bricco di Neive (now Serraboella) in 1796, renaming the site Sorí d’Paitin. Shortly afterwards he bought the contiguous parcels adjacent (making the Sorí a parcel within a parcel) as well as an underground cellar nearby, and the family farms these same plots and vinifies the wine in these same cellars today.

The modern history of the estate starts with Secondo Pasquero-Elia taking over in 1948, shortly after the Second World War. Short of cash and wanting to ensure that the women who worked at the Estate during the War got paid, Secondo’s mother produced no wine between 1938 and 1948, and began selling off plots of land instead. Secondo, determined to rebuild the family’s reputation, acquired the rights to the remaining land from his mother and set about transforming the cellars. Fast forward 70 years and today there is a new generation of Pasquero-Elia running the cellars – Luca.

Barely 30, Luca, along with his father and uncle, has already introduced radical change into the cellars at Paitin. Gone are the rotofermentors and French tonneaux of the 1980s and in their place stainless steel vats for fermentation and large Slavonian and Austrian oak (botti) for ageing. Longer, more gentle macerations with a submerged cap have seen the style at Paitin change dramatically, and as Galloni has noted in recent vintages, “the potential has always been evident, and it is significant.”

Luca is undoubtedly unlocking this potential, not just by changing the winemaking but also by acquiring more land. In 2018, and for the first time in 125 years, Paitin acquired some new vineyards: two prime sites in Basarin and Faset (sitting just above Asili). The first vintage for Basarin was 2018, while the first vintage for Faset is 2019.

With the help of Dante Scaglione (Bruno Giacosa’s winemaker) Luca is clearly on the rise to stardom and our advice is to watch and follow this estate closely.

We are delighted to present their recently released 2019s – an outstanding vintage for the region – as well as their Sorí Paitin Riserva Vecchie Vigne 2016, which was all snapped up straight away.

Quantities are genuinely limited: the estate produces roughly 10,000 bottles of their flagship Barbaresco Serraboella, and everything else in much smaller volumes, so act quickly to secure the below.