This month we welcomed the '25 vintage from two favorite new Piedmont names—both with Pelaverga in tow. San Barnaba and a first-ever bottling from Maffrei join annual releases of the enduring classics, Castello di Verduno and G.B. Burlotto. It's our autumn ideal.

Details below, plus a touch about why we love Pelaverga!  

MAFFREI

Back in April, we celebrated the La Morra-based brothers' very first Barolo release—a thrilling evening which quietly included another sneak peek: their first Pelaverga, from a parcel they lease in Verduno.

It's hard to imagine a grape better suited to their aromatic, quenching style. The label (commissioned to a Brazilian artist) is a hint to their expression, which reads like a dusting of pepper over mountain cherries.

These are some of the most satisfying wines in Piedmont’s new chapter, and we're thrilled to have this peek at their '25 vintage alongside Chardonnay, Dolcetto and Langhe Nebbiolo.

SHOP MAFFREI 

SAN BARNABA

San Barnaba was one of our favorite new additions to the shop last year. With serious terroirs and the son of famed Barbaresco producer Bruno Rocca in the cellar—who now also helms his family estate—the wines carry serious confidence. It's a tiny but important project and already, the wines have the perfume and sneaky spine of some of Piedmont’s best names.

For Pelaverga, Bruno follows fermentation in barrique with a fresh moment of age in cement—bringing an ultra transparent view to the grape, and especially bright, fine-knit red fruit.

This release from '25 also includes Freisa and Nebbiolo, alongside their sole white, '24 Derthona Timorasso (another tiny category in Piedmont we just can't get enough of...)

SHOP SAN BARNABA

BURLOTTO

Despite their Baroli ascending into the world's most collectible (and most expensive) tier—more likely to be seen at auction than retail—G.B. Burlotto's over-achieving range of varietal wines have remained accessible to all wine lovers. Thankfully this applies to their Pelaverga, which Elisa Burlotto revived from relative extinction in the 1970s by planting cuttings from the family's generations-old garden into Massara cru, edging their legendary Monvigliero.

The originator of Verduno Pelaverga, Burlotto's is one of the great pleasures in wine. It leans the hardest into the grape's joyous English strawberry profile: sweet, floral red berry with a touch of bright green herb.

SHOP BURLOTTO

CASTELLO DI VERDUNO

Castello di Verduno's Basadone is the other Pelaverga that's graced our shelves since day one. With one foot in Barolo and the other in Barbaresco, the 16th century estate is perched over Verduno, previously part of G.B. Burlotto's holdings and inherited by one of his three sons.

Similar to Burlotto, this a pure appellation expression: energetic, rose-scented red fruit, vinified in stainless steel. It's an especially good pair for earthy spice—think cumin roasted chicken or a charred Neapolitan pie.

SHOP CASTELLO DI VERDUNO 

WHY WE LOVE PELAVERGA

Barolo is already a special, small place that we love. But it’s the teeny-tiny, northernmost town of Verduno that has our undivided attention. The area produces only 5% of Barolo's wines but everything made here is categorically worth tracking down.

Verduno! Photo via G.B. Burlotto

It's a sentiment that extends to Pelaverga Piccolo (separate from the far less aromatic Pelaverga Grosso), a grape distinct to Verduno and still only farmed to the tune of two dozen hectares, max. But that there is land still preserved for this local darling—in an area now prized for the world's greatest Nebbiolo—says it all.

Incredibly complex but structurally on the delicate end, it's a light-bodied, strawberry-fields-in-a-glass red that flexes deeply from aperitif to pork roast. And in an era of warm vintages, Verduno's elevation helps keep things fresh.