Prunotto Barbera D'Alba 2017

In 1904 a co-operative winery called Ai Vino Delle Langhe was founded and a young man who founded a young man who worked there was one Alfred Prunotto. Prunotto took over the estate in 1922, giving it his own name and today it is run under the umbrella of the famous Marchesi Antinori family. Located in Alba the estate tends around 50 hectares of vineyards throughout the Langhe and Monferrato and produces a range of fine wines from the heady Moscato d'Alba to delicious Barbera, Dolcetto and Nebbiolo. A the top end lie a range of single cru wines from Barolo, Barbaresco and the DOC's of Nebbiolo d'Alba, Barbera d'Alba, Dolcetto d'Alba and Barbera d'Asti. Classic Piedmont wines produced with style by the Antinori family.

The 2017 vintage will be remembered for the hot climate and the scarce rainfall which characterised it. Winter saw mild weather with little snow fall, while the first part of springtime was marked by some precipitation and above average temperatures, factors which favoured an early growth and with frost damage which struck, principally, the valley floors and the cooler parts of the hillside slopes. A lengthy period of fine weather then followed, which culminated in the high temperatures recorded during the summer months. A few isolated rainstorms during the month of August brought useful reserves of water during the first week of September and helped create important temperature swings between daytime warmth and evening and nighttime coolness, there by favouring the ripening of both the Barbera and Nebbiolo grapes.

The vineyards are located in the townships of Barbaresco, Treiso, Alba & Barolo. The soils are created by the marine currents during the Miocene epoch, mixed in composition with sand & clay as the principle elements.