Unfortunately for us, Ca’ del Baio is no longer the best-kept secret in Barbaresco it once was.  The news, thanks to their reviews, the annual visits of the PRIMA gang and the profiling of the Grasso sisters in Suzanne Hoffman’s excellent book ‘Labor of Love,’ is definitely out!  But, no matter, the Grassos are still some of the nicest people in all of the Langhe and their wines among the region’s most compelling. -JR 

 With four generations of family knowhow and over 30 vintages behind it, Ca’ del Baio is no Johnny-come-lately to the Barbaresco world, and with holdings in vineyards like Asili and Pora in the Barbaresco zone and a wonderful spot on the backside of Vallegrande in Treiso., the current generations of the Grasso family, Giulio, Luciana and their three savvy daughters, are important landholders and winemakers, no matter how you look at it.  The family home and cellar are in the tiny hamlet of Treiso, the smallest and least-known of the three major Barbaresco villages, and easy to miss if you’re driving through the area.  The vineyards fanning this little town are vertiginous in the extreme and only sparsely covered with the kind of sandy, marly soils that create the most structured, longest lived Nebbiolos in the entire Barbaresco zone.  If you step outside the Grassos’ stylish new tasting area and look up their steep driveway, the breathtaking slope that rises in front of you is the family’s home vineyard of Vallegrande.  It provides the fruit for one of their two single-vineyard bottlings (and a Riserva)- a dense, intense but elegant wine built on a core of wild strawberries and plums with Treiso’s textbook cooler climate elegance and crisp, lithe tannins. It’s a wine that shows why Barbaresco is often called the more ‘feminine’ of the three major Nebbiolo production zones. It’s a thoroughly charming Barbaresco, but with a heart of pure iron and fortitude- kind of like the three sisters who make it.  I love the Vallegrande Barbaresco for its effusive Nebbiolo personality- its bright, fresh, even snappy nose of strawberry confit, crushed plums, black licorice, bitter chocolate and violet pastilles.  Surprisingly ripe and rich on the palate for such an elegant presentation, its youthful Treiso tannins are nicely covered by its fruit, making for a delicious drink even now but will age beautifully. The Grasso’s other major vineyard holding is on the other side of the hill near Barbaresco village on the famous Asili hill. The Asili cru has been the source for some of Barbaresco’s most iconic wines over the years and brings together all of the attributes for which this area is so well known. Tighter wound and more introverted than just about anything else we’ve tasted from 2019, it’s a wine of immense pedigree, verve and potential longevity. Richer in texture than the Vallegrande right now, it’s a wine that will reveal its many charms only slowly over the next decade or so. What a great Asili! 2019 is a stunning vintage for Barbaresco- a vintage with more vibrancy and elan than most, but don’t be fooled. It’ll be as long-lived as any in recent memory too.   By the way, Paula Grasso (pictured second from the left, next to Anne) is the oldest of the three sisters and married to our good friend Carlo Deltetto of Deltetto in Roero’s Canale whose wines PRIMA directly imports. I wanted to remind you that we’re your source for their wonderful Roero Arneis, sparkling wines and terrific Barbera and Roero Riserva reds.