VINITALY 2012 – OFFICIAL MAPS OF BAROLO AND BARBARESCO CRUS. “IT IS DIFFICULT FOR OTHER TERRITORIES BECAUSE THE CONCEPT OF CRU IS NOT DEEPLY ROOTED," SAID ALEXANDER MASNAGHETTI, CONSULTANT ON THE BAROLO CONSORTIUM PROJECT

Barolo and Barbaresco now have their official maps indicating "cru" or the "additional geographic mentions". It is a milestone for the Consortium of Barolo, Barbaresco, Alba, Langhe and Roero to formally put this wording on labels, in accordance with current legislation and to make a sort of "historic" practice already in place, official. In a few cases, this labeling in some "sub zones” was a already widely used practice among producers (in accordance, of course, with Law 164 of 1992).

The journalist and cartographer Alessandro Masnaghetti, who participated in the mapping project, explained: "This project provides the regulations: up until now, the names of crus were kind of defined “off the record” but now the areas are well defined and if you have vineyards in that particular cru then you can use that name, otherwise it is not allowed. It is fitting there be a law that producers must abide by on this very important issue”.

Is such a sophisticated system possible only in the Langhe? "This type of project in other production territories”, explained Masnaghetti, “poses the problem of finding areas where the concept of cru is deeply rooted and they are not easy to find. Take Tuscany, for example - at least according to the experience I have had working in this region - you can get maps with the names of all the vineyards, but not the companies, because we know that in Chianti Classico, and in Tuscany in general, it is not the concept of cru that prevails but rather the business concept. It is similar to Bordeaux: it is the land that counts and talking about crus in these areas is out of place because it does not belong to the DNA of these territories. There are, instead, other areas that could easily adopt this system,” continued the journalist, “core" of the bimonthly wine magazine, Enogea. “I adopted the system in Dogliani, and will soon do so in Diano, and I think it can be easily done in the Roero area and also at least part of the Astigiano area. In Montalcino, I think it is difficult because it is the same as Chianti: the concept of cru is not ingrained. You might be able to discuss macro zones - however, it requires a big commitment. For Barolo and Barbaresco we had people like Renato Ratti who began mapping the territory forty years ago, when there were very few companies in Montalcino”.

The project had the technical support of Oikos Engineering company in Alba that created a "Geographic Information System" on Internet platform (Web-GIS) containing, plus additional geographic digital maps of Barolo and Barbaresco, spatial mapping supports, such as the Regional Technical Map, Cadastral Numerical mapping and some themes made from the Mathematical Land Model (Tin), such as exposure and slope maps. We also had invaluable help from the journalist Alessandro Masnaghetti who, thanks to his previous experience on wine mapping, was a consultant for the project, undertaken by the Consortium for the Defense of Barolo, Barbaresco, Alba, Langhe and Roero, with the contribution of the municipalities that include both names and the Province of Cuneo.



Focus - What are the “additional geographical mentions” for Barbaresco and Barolo

The additional geographical zones (or subzones) are limited areas within the production area. Unlike the French crus, the “additional geographical mentions” do not designate higher quality wines, but more precisely they indicate the origin of the wines produced and marketed: in other words, the wines that bear the label “additional geographical mentions” are produced exclusively with grapes from that particular geographical area. The introduction of “additional geographical mentions” in production regulations allows a better definition of the qualitative pyramid, enhances the link between product and territory, to segment the market better and give clearer information on labels for the consumer. The “additional geographical mentions” for Barbaresco have been an integral part of the production specification since February 2007, while for Barolo it arrived in 2010.