Vietti: when the Monvigliero cru is acquired via a sharecropping agreement

Langhe has experienced a myriad of investments and changes of hand over the past few years, but there is one that is really incredible. We have to go back to 2018, when a one of a kind opportunity came knocking — acquire a vineyard in Barolo, more precisely, an eight thousand square meter plot of one of the most prestigious crus, Monvigliero. The protagonist of the story was Vietti, a brand from Castiglione Falletto, a historic maison and wine producer of some of the most popular Barolo crus. And, as Luca Currado Vietti, at the helm of the company, said, he had just embarked on other important investments related to the purchase of new vineyards.

Not having the capital to finance the purchase, and not being able to knock on the Banks’ doors again, he instead found an original solution, to say the least. He decided to repeat a deal that had taken place a few years earlier in Burgundy, in the Domaine Georges Roumier, where a “métayage” e agreement was stipulated (this is, in essence, a form of sharecropping), among a group of ten American investors (including, rumors have it, the rapper, Jay-Z). It was the perfect solution, and after the first plot was purchased in 2018, the second one was purchased in 2019, so that today, they form a cru of 1.6 total hectares. The terms of the agreement are actually simpler than one might imagine. The group of investors retains 45% of the production each year, which comes out with the Vietti label, while Luca Currado Vietti retains the remaining 55%. And the first vintage of Barolo Monvigliero, 2018 has just come out on the market.