I was able to land a place for harvest at Azienda Agricola Sukula, owned by a famous Finnish chef couple Jyrki & Riikka Sukula. They own 2 ha of land in Meriame, which is located 2km from Serralunga d'Alba in the Barolo DOCG production area. Their nebbiolo vineyards are old, between 40-65 years, which is very promising for wine production. There is some barbera too which is sold to other producers as the estate concentrates solely for production of barolo.
The Sukulas have access to excellent wine making facilities as they are good friends of Giorgio Rivetti, owner of La Spinetta, and use La Spinetta's production equipment for their barolo.
The 2ha's of land owned by the couple is near the average in the Barolo production region, however too small to justify owning the production equipment. Thus the average producers either rent production facilities from larger estates or sell grapes to other producers. In Barbaresco there are also co-operatives (like Produttori del Barbaresco) who pool grapes from large amount of producers.
Can't wait for the harvest to begin. Nebbiolo is a grape which is harvested usually in very late September or early October, and this year follows the rule. I will be a tourist here in Alba and the nearby villages for a couple of days while waiting for the grapes to reach optimal ripeness. Most of my time I will be circling the wine estates, so more blogs to come from tastings in Piemonte.
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