Giacomo Barbero

Can you tell us how the Giacomo Barbero project came about? My wine story doesn't begin in a cellar, but with a desire. A desire to create a small, pure, and artisanal wine project in the heart of Piedmont. I dreamed of returning to my roots – to Roero, the land of my ancestors – and making wines there that truly tell a story. No compromise, no mass production, but bottles in which you can taste the rhythm of the seasons and feel the breath of the hills. That's how the Giacomo Barbero project was born.

Your family has a long winemaking tradition. What role did your father play in your approach to wine? My passion for wine was instilled in me from a very young age. On my father's side, wine is in our blood. My great-grandfather Giorgio Barbero started viticulture at the end of the 19th century, and subsequent generations continued to build on that. Eventually, this led to the birth of the Barbero Group, an important company that also owned one of the oldest wineries in the region: Enrico Serafino. My father Gianni was the commercial director there for many years and often took me along as a child. I walked with him at fairs, listened to conversations with agents, and saw how wine connected people. Not just in the glass, but in life too. What he passed on to me is that wine is, first and foremost, about people. About stories. About emotion.
You initially chose a different field of study. When did you realize you wanted to be a winemaker? During my university years, I worked summers at a small family winery in my hometown of Canale. There, I worked in the cellar, helped with vinification, and guided tastings with customers. But the real turning point came later, during a winter in 2014. I had just obtained my degree in economics and finance and was about to start an internship at a major investment bank. My ticket was booked, my future seemed mapped out. But when I first started pruning grapevines myself in the cold vineyard, I felt something shift. That act, that rhythm, that contact with nature – it touched something in me that no office ever could.

A week before leaving for the bank, I canceled everything. I knew: this is my path. Not the world of numbers, but that of earth, grapes, and wine.

Why did you choose Roero as your base?
Sometimes you choose a place, but sometimes a place chooses you. That's how it feels for me with Roero. I was born here, my roots are in these hills, and every meter of this land tells a story I've known since childhood.

It was therefore natural for me that my wines had to be created here. Not with international grapes or trendy techniques, but with what belongs here: Nebbiolo, Barbera, Arneis, Favorita. I want to make wines that are rooted in the identity of Roero – wines that don't just come from this region, but speak for it and bring the region's DOCG wines to life.

How would you describe the terroir of Valmaggiore, and how does it influence your wines?Valmaggiore, in Vezza d'Alba, is a place of contrasts – and that is precisely its strength. During the day it can be warm, but at night the temperature drops significantly. This thermal fluctuation creates wines with an exciting tension between freshness and ripeness.
The soil is complex: layers of calcareous loam, interspersed with sand and gravel. There is character in this soil, minerality, depth. It is no coincidence that this place has become famous for Nebbiolo. The grape feels at home here and translates the finesse and layering of the terroir directly into the glass.

You work a lot with stainless steel. What motivates that choice? Stainless steel is a conscious choice for me, not a temporary solution. Stainless steel is neutral and allows me to preserve the purity of the grape, without external influences. It respects the work done in the vineyard and does not filter the end result.

I love wines with vibrancy, with tension, with freshness. Thanks to stainless steel, I can maintain that clarity, year after year, grape after grape.

And yet you also use wooden barrels? Absolutely. Already with my first harvest in 2016, I started with wood – carefully, with 500-liter tonneaux for Barbera and Nebbiolo. But I never use wood to dominate. It's there to support, to give structure and depth where the grape demands it.

In 2017, I invested in my first large Slovenian oak foudre for what is now my flagship: Roero DOCG Riserva Valmaggiore. That's not a wine that appears every year, only in exceptional vintages where everything is perfect.

For me, wood is not a stylistic choice, but a form of listening. To the grape. To the year. To the potential of the vineyard. If that aligns, then wood can do something magical.

How do you see the future of Roero? Roero is constantly evolving. In the next ten years, we must dare to invest in quality, in precision. We have fantastic crus and microzones, which we need to map out better. Both Nebbiolo and Arneis deserve to be tasted in their most refined form – with a balance between elegance, structure, and character.

What worries me are the consequences of climate change: drought, erratic weather conditions, spring frosts, sudden hail. This forces us to adapt, but also to be humble.

At the same time, I am particularly hopeful about Arneis. That grape has so much more potential than often thought. Young, it is fresh and expressive, but with some aging, it shows a mineral backbone and a quiet grandeur that is truly impressive.

You work sustainably. How do you translate that into practice? For me, sustainability doesn't just mean saving energy or installing a few solar panels – it's about caring for everything that affects the wine, from soil to glass. In the vineyard, we work according to a sustainability protocol from the Piedmont region, only intervening when absolutely necessary. Thanks to weather stations spread across the Roero hills, we can precisely tune when and how we work, thereby protecting the soil and keeping the plants healthy.

In the cellar, too, we deliberately focus on renewable energy. We have installed solar panels and aim to expand this further in the coming years. But for me, it's not just about numbers or wattages: every detail counts to make wines that are in balance with the terroir, with the climate, and with our ethics. For me, sustainability is a philosophy that runs through everything, from how we prune the vines to how the light warms the barrels. This is how wines are created that are not only pure and elegant but also reflect respect for nature and the future.

Is there a wine with which you have a special connection? Without a doubt: Barbera d’Alba Superiore Montorone. As a child, Barbera was always on the table at my grandparents' and parents' house – it was the smell and taste of home.
Montorone is my personal ode to that memory, but also an expression of what Barbera can be: rich, structured, ripe fruit (think cherries), intertwined with velvety tannins from French oak. It ages for 18 months in tonneaux and develops an elegance that always moves me.

What is your main ambition for your estate? I want to make wines that tell the story of Roero. Not copies, not fads, but bottles where you feel where they come from. My dream is for people to recognize the Giacomo Barbero label as synonymous with origin, with soul, with terroir. Not because it's a name, but because it's a place that speaks.