Barale Barolo: Organic, Family-Made Wines with 150 Years of Tradition

Eleonora and Gloria Barale are the fifth generation to hold the reins at Barale Fratelli, a winery whose history in Barolo runs 150+-years deep. The fact that they are not fratelli (brothers) at all, but sorelle (sisters), reflects the new generation in Barolo: women holding leadership roles in what was once a very male-dominated industry, who use modern technology and farming practices but traditional winemaking methods to create flat-out fantastic wines.

The sisters learned their winemaking style from their father, Sergio, who learned it from his. Aside from more modern equipment, their wine is made in the traditional way: large oak vats for fermentation and botti for aging instead of barriques to preserve the softer, sweeter natural tannins of the grape. They control temperature, use indigenous yeast, and are very gentle during the whole process so as not to break the skins. These steps lead to a very elegant and complex wine–the house style for the Barali can be summed up by finesse. “My father taught me this way,” Eleonora says. “He learned from his father to respect the grape. The grape will teach you how it wants to be produced.”

This connection to tradition is important to Eleonora, who also does not plan to change the name to reflect the sorelle of the current generation. They are part of the house’s lineage, one that started when her great-grandfather, Carlo Barale, married Margherita Rinaldi, and then left the family winery to their sons, Battista, Giuseppe, and Francesco. Yet women are increasingly becoming a presence in Barolo’s wine production. Eleonora says, “Female power is changing everywhere. There is an evolution of the work. I’m excited to work because nowadays women are able to do something that belonged to men in the past. A lot of cellars now are managed by women in a very good way. It’s exciting to continue something that started 150 years ago, and I try to do it in my best way. It’s what I like in this job.”

She has seen the region change in her lifetime. “To be honest it’s not the same here, it was a poorer region, lots of people were leaving to go to more industrial places, but now more and more young people are staying here. There are more young families. They are investing more energy in new technology, with a new vision. More young people have a green point of view.” Eleonora encouraged her father to to get certified organic. “It was a lot of bureaucracy and paperwork, but it’s important to us. We are making wines that are more healthy, but also made with respect. What is important here is the land, we have to respect it.” The Langhe hills were once part of the sea bed, and you can still find fossils in the hills. A certain sense of salinity and minerality is translated into the glass. Nebbiolo loves it here. And, thanks to the work of this generation, the vineyards and vines will be healthier for the next.

The next generation could potentially be her two children, though she makes no predictions or demands of them for their future. In fact, when she was a child, winemaking was not her dream job. “I wanted to be a scientist, a business person. But I put my feet on the terra, and my destiny was in the wine. I’m the oldest daughter. I’m the ambassador. It’s very special. For me it was a great opportunity.”

When I asked her about the future of Barale, she said it lies in partnerships–not in more volume, not in conquering the world, but in continuing to make small lots of high-quality wines, then finding the right partners who care about good, artisanal Barolo. “You can’t make Barolo for everybody. The region is small and you can only make so much. In the 90s people wanted to sell Barolo everywhere: more oak, in a more international style, but it’s important to keep the tradition of Barolo, respecting the grape.” It’s clear she achieves this when you have a glass of her beautiful wine in your hand.