History
The figure behind the name
Arnaldo Rivera was born on 13 December 1919. A native of Castiglione Falletto, he worked as a primary-school teacher and served as the town’s mayor for 37 years. He had also been a partisan commander under the nom de guerre “Arno” and a commissioner of the Comitato di Liberazione in Turin.
On 8 December 1958 Rivera joined 21 local growers in creating the Cantina Terre del Barolo cooperative. The undertaking initially faced serious resistance from large wineries and brokers concerned about losing their control of the market. Rivera’s aim was to unite grower families around the production of wine capable of adding value to both the community and its territory. By the first harvest in October 1959, the cooperative had 362 members and construction of its winery had begun.
Rivera died on 10 January 1987. His name and community-minded approach later became the foundation of the ArnaldoRivera project.
Vineyards that preceded the project
In 1994, the cooperative acquired a Nebbiolo vineyard in Rocche di Castiglione at Castiglione Falletto. It became the oldest estate-owned vineyard represented in the project. A second estate vineyard was acquired in 1999 in Boiolo at La Morra, at the outer end of Rocche dell’Annunziata.
The 2013 protocol and first vintage
The Cru project began with the 2013 vintage through a formal agreement between Cantina Terre del Barolo and grower-members who owned selected Nebbiolo vineyards in the Langhe. Candidate land was examined before admission, both to protect the level of the collection and to allow further crus to be considered over time.
The agreement established a common system of technical advice, periodic vineyard inspections and agronomic requirements. Participating growers committed each plot for at least five years. Compliance qualified the fruit for a premium per hectare above the cooperative’s ordinary grape payment.
Public launch in 2017
ArnaldoRivera was presented in 2017 as a journey through the historic crus of Barolo. Although introduced publicly that year, the wines began with the 2013 vintage. The name was chosen by the cooperative’s grower families as a tribute to their founder, approximately sixty years after the cooperative’s creation.
The original collection brought together an undicicomuni Barolo, seven named Barolo origins—Ravera, Boiolo, Monvigliero, Bussia, Castello, Vignarionda and Rocche di Castiglione—and wines from traditional local varieties.
Expansion in 2018
Two additional Barolo geographical mentions joined the project in 2018: Villero in Castiglione Falletto and Rocche dell’Annunziata in La Morra. This brought ArnaldoRivera to nine cru territories.
The undicicomuni blend also expanded. The 2016 vintage drew on ten selected parcels, while wines from the 2018 vintage onward were assembled from 21 vineyards distributed across the denomination.
Terroir
ArnaldoRivera reaches across the Barolo area through selected vineyards in several communes. Its documented sites range from approximately 260 to 440 metres above sea level and include south, south-east and south-west exposures.
The geological record varies markedly between crus. Ravera rests on white, marly and calcareous soils over approximately nine-million-year-old Sant’Agata Fossil Marls. Monvigliero combines clay- and limestone-rich white marl with laminated Sant’Agata Fossil Marls dating to about eight million years ago. Bussia lies on white marl with gravel and coarse mineral material, where Sant’Agata Fossil Marls transition towards the Diano Sandstones. Castello has deep brown marl, rich in clay and comparatively low in limestone, above approximately ten-million-year-old Sant’Agata Fossil Marls.
The eastern sites introduce another geological profile. Vignarionda has shallow, pale marl rich in limestone over the roughly twelve-million-year-old Lequio Formation. Rocche di Castiglione has brown marl with a substantial sandy component and moderate limestone, associated with Diano Sandstones transitioning to Sant’Agata Fossil Marls.
Boiolo is distinguished by brown, cool clay soils. Bussia’s particular microclimate is associated with consistent grape quality across vintages. The range of elevations, aspects and substrates gives the project a deliberately multi-origin structure rather than a single-estate terroir.
Winemaking
ArnaldoRivera vineyards operate under a formal Cru protocol agreed between the cooperative and participating grower-owners. Candidate vineyards are examined before they can enter the collection, and the cooperative provides continuing technical advice.
Technicians visit the vineyards periodically and complete an assessment form. Management can be graded as excellent, requiring revision or unacceptable. A grower commits a participating plot for at least five years, while full compliance earns a premium per hectare above the cooperative’s normal grape settlement.
The protocol regulates soil fertilisation, soil cultivation, pruning, weed management without chemical herbicides, canopy health, treatments and foliar fertilisation. Prescribed green operations include shoot thinning, lateral-shoot removal, summer leaf removal and trimming. Crop thinning, monitoring of flavescence dorée, maintenance of a vineyard record, harvest timing and grape-delivery procedures are also included.
Production is organised around a shared protocol intended to preserve the identity of selected sites and varieties. It governs the timing of harvest and the manner in which grapes are delivered, linking vineyard assessment directly to cellar intake. The collection’s guiding production principle is varietal purity combined with close territorial expression.
Philosophy
ArnaldoRivera presents the project as an expression of grower pride, collective work and fidelity to place. Its vineyards are treated as a shared patrimony in which technical knowledge and craftsmanship should reveal the character of individual origins and traditional varieties.
The name is also an explicit statement of community values. It honours a founder who united grower families around the idea that wine could strengthen both their dignity and the territory’s economic and cultural life. The project carries that principle forward through formal cooperation between the cellar and vineyard owners rather than through a conventional single-family estate model.
Territorial adherence and single-variety purity form the core of the collection’s quality concept. Vineyard admission, technical supervision and economic incentives are coordinated so that growers and the cooperative work toward the same standard.