A month in wine

Obits: Ron Miller & Beppe Colla; Cava brands form new Corpinnat group

1930-2019

PATRIARCH OF BAROLO, Beppe Colla, has died aged 88, in the year he would have celebrated his 70th harvest.

Colla was a driving force behind the formation of Barolo DOCG as we know it today. In the 1960s, he worked alongside producers such as Renato Ratti and Gildo Cavallotto to plot the outer boundaries of the Barolo region, paving the way for the appellation.

Colla also helped introduce the Barolo cru system during this period by bottling his single-site wines under the vineyard name ‘Bussia’.

‘I can honestly say that I came to understand wine when I visited Burgundy in the early 1960s’, he told Alessandro Masnaghetti in an interview in 2016.

After graduating from Alba’s Scuola Enologica in 1949, 19-year-old Colla began his winemaking career at Casa Vinicola Bonardi, one of Alba’s largest wineries at that time. He bought Cavalier Prunotto in 1956 and produced outstanding Barolo vintages until he sold the estate to the Antinori family in 1990. He continued to collaborate with Piero Antinori in the years that followed.

Colla will be remembered by many Langhe winemakers for his tireless work as president of the Consorzio di Tutela Barolo Barbaresco, tackling issues such as over-extraction of Nebbiolo grapes and the 1986 methanol scandal.

In 1994 he joined forces with his brother Tino, daughter Federica and nephew Pietro to establish his family winery, Poderi Colla. He also founded the ‘Order of the Knights of the Truffle and Wines of Alba’ to protect and preserve the region’s local produce.

Colla’s funeral took place on 17 January in the church of Cristo Re in Alba.