Tenuta Rocca Alta

Tenuta Rocca Alta begins with a love story — though not the sentimental kind. In 2003, Matteo Gallo and Sara Bianchi were driving through the Roero hills when they spotted an abandoned estate on a high ridge. The farmhouse was roofless, the terraces collapsing, but the old Arneis vines — some over forty years old — were still clinging to the sandy soil. They bought it on the spot.

It took two years of backbreaking work to restore the terraces, rebuild the cellar, and nurse the vines back to health. Their first vintage in 2005 produced barely 3,000 bottles. But the quality was unmistakable. The sandy, calcareous soils of the Roero — so different from the clay of the Langhe across the river — gave their wines a distinctive lightness, a crystalline purity that caught the attention of Italian wine critics.

Today, Matteo and Sara farm six hectares of Arneis and Nebbiolo on their high-altitude estate. They are part of a new generation of Roero winemakers proving that this overlooked appellation — long in the shadow of Barolo — deserves recognition in its own right. Their wines are fresh, precise, and full of the energy that comes from people who genuinely love what they do.