Cascina Penna-Currado: Elena and Luca Currado Vietti, with their children, return to Langa

A little more than a year ago, Elena and Luca Currado Vietti were leaving Vietti, one of the most famous wineries in Barolo, founded in the late 19th century by Carlo Vietti, Luca’s great-grandfather, and acquired in 2016 by the American Krause Group, and which now has 80 hectares under vine, more than 20 of them in Barolo. “We close one chapter and open another, it’s a “consensual divorce”, but we are certainly not “retiring” from the wine world”, the couple had explained to WineNews. And today the word is kept, because Elena and Luca Currado Vietti, together with their children Giulia and Michele, are starting a new journey with Cascina Penna-Currado, in a historic Langa farmhouse (Cascina Lazzarito, originally owned by the Falletti family, who invented Barolo, then sold to the Church, which, through the Opere Pie, produced wine here for all Serralunga properties), located on a wonderful hill ridge in the municipality of Serralunga d’Alba. A country house whose first brick bears the original date of 1554 and today, after careful restoration of the ancient structure, is preparing to breathe new life. The roots of the place intersect with the roots of a family that, in this area of noble Piedmont, has already written important and indelible pages of wine history. Elena and Luca Currado Vietti, together with their children Giulia and Michele, will lead this new small artisanal reality.
“This joint family project, in which our two children are personally involved, fills me with joy. I realize that this is first and foremost a maternal thought, but also a way to move the hands of time to different horizons, with new blood and new ideas”, says Elena Penna. Cascina Penna-Currado, on the strength of the experiences gained by its protagonists and the dynamic vision of the world of wine, starting with climate change that imposes different trajectories at the agricultural and strategic levels, aims to design “Langa-driven wines” that are not demonstrative, but capable of conveying instinct, energy and territorial recognizability. In conclusion, says Luca Currado Vietti, “we know how to do things one way, simply and humbly, that is, trying to give our best, with credibility, every day. This is the only way we know how to get to the finish line. Lastly, I would like to emphasize that we are taking the first steps of this new adventure, and articulate and ambitious projects absorb evolutions within their path, as it will be for us”.
The debut wine will be Langhe Nebbiolo Bricco Lago, and it will have a label designed by Giuseppe Stampone, a visual artist who has also exhibited all over the world at important events and museums, such as the Venice Biennale, MAXXI in Rome, The Invisible Dog Art Center in Brooklyn, New York, and beyond, with the back label explaining the philosophy that inspired him, and that inspires the path of Cascina Penna-Currado: “a new journey begins with a look beyond the horizon, in search of untraveled roads where one can leave a mark of one’s passage”.
“But in two/three years Barolo will also come, we have two of the five most important MGAs, which we don’t want to reveal for now. The production will be divided between Dolcetto, Langhe Nebbiolo, Barbera, Nebbiolo d’Alba, which is growing a lot and in which we believe a lot, Timorasso, and of course Barolo, to reach 70,000 bottles in total. Wines with a modern approach, even in the choice of soils, such as those in the San Sebastiano area, and in winemaking techniques, because it is a project designed for the future and for our children, and that takes into account a changing world, because what was valid 30 years ago is not valid today”. 20 hectares of total vineyard involved in the project, all under “complete management, because we do not want to buy a single ounce of grapes not grown by us”, explains, to WineNews, Luca Currado Vietti. Who adds, “we are also going ahead with the project led by my wife Elena Penna, with the company that bears her name, and that produces Vermouth from Barolo, Gin and high quality spirits, which is doing very well, and we are going to reduce a lot the consultancies leaving only those that we do more for passion, like the one in Castiglion del Bosco, with Beppe Caviola, in Montalcino, and Querciabella, in Chianti Classico. We are focusing on Cascina Penna-Currado, it’s a beautiful new beginning because it's a reknitting of the threads of the family history that was interrupted in 2016”.