Casalone

Origins: 1734

The Casalone family’s winegrowing history begins in Lu Monferrato in 1734. Petrus Hieronymus Casalone arrived there as a tenant farmer and vine grower for the Marchesi Millo. The family has continued cultivating vines in Monferrato for nearly three centuries, preserving a conception of winemaking as an art passed from one generation to the next.

The nine-generation genealogy begins with Petrus Hieronymus and Ursula Margarita Jugalium de Casalone in 1734. It then records Carolus Joseph and Anna Maria in 1745; Joannes Laurentius and Maria Carolina Albertis in 1794; Petrus Joannes and Teresa Trisoglio in 1828; Luigi Antonio Giuseppe and Francesca Cattana in 1865; and Secondo Giovanni Pietro and Ernestina Capra in 1890.

The twentieth-century family and cellar

The next generation comprises Francesca, recorded in 1921; Pietro, in 1925; and Ernesto, in 1933, together with Ernesto’s wife Maria Luisa Verri. The old masonry tanks beneath the family house date from 1932 and remain part of the working cellar alongside modern stainless-steel vessels and several formats of wooden cask.

Ernesto Casalone led the estate from the 1950s. Remembered as forward-looking, determined and central to the business, he remained closely associated with it after his sons Pierangelo and Paolo joined. From the 1970s, Casalone produced three distinct interpretations of Barbera del Monferrato: Rubermillo, matured in barriques; Bricco Morlantino, matured in traditional oak casks; and Bricco Santa Maria, matured in tanks.

Rediscovering Malvasia Moscata

In the 1980s, Ernesto and Maria Luisa committed themselves to a nearly vanished old vine known in Monferrato tradition as Malvasia Greca. The variety was subsequently entered in the Registro Nazionale delle Varietà di Viti under the name Malvasia Moscata. This recovery became a defining part of the family’s production over the following decades and ultimately gave rise to still, sweet, dried-grape and traditional-method sparkling expressions, including a special sparkling release matured for 100 months on its lees.

Later generations and new releases

The eighth generation is represented by Pier Angelo, recorded in 1961; Francesca in 1962 with Mauro Berra; Elisabetta in 1966 with Corrado Boccaccio; and Paolo in 1969 with Romina Curci. The ninth-generation genealogy records Paolo in 1991, Simone in 1994, Cristina and Luca in 1997, Mattia in 2007 and Alice in 2009.

Beginning with the 2014 harvest, the estate added a limited Grignolino matured for at least 40 months in tonneaux and dedicated to Pietro Francesco Guala’s painting I Canonici di Lu. On 24 September 2016, after more than fifty years away, the painting returned to Lu and entered the Museo di Arte Sacra e del Territorio through the work of the Associazione San Giacomo di Lu and the Diocesi di Casale Monferrato.

Ernesto Casalone died in 2021. A pure Pinot Nero cuvée named Arnest—Ernesto in the Monferrato dialect—commemorates his character and his leadership of the estate from the 1950s through the arrival of Pierangelo and Paolo.

The 10 ha of vineyards are farmed according to the principles of integrated agriculture under Misura 214.

Guyot is the established pruning system. Depending on parcel and intended selection, the number of buds retained per vine is limited or strongly reduced to control vigour and crop load. The spaces between rows are kept grassed, helping preserve soil structure, rebalance vine vigour and further contain vegetative growth. Cluster thinning is carried out for selected production, in some cases at veraison. The most selective lots also receive an additional choice of bunches during harvest or a vineyard selection of the best clusters.

Harvest timing follows the intended production method. Grapes destined for traditional-method sparkling wine may be picked early, in August, to retain acidity and aromatic intensity. Grapes intended for dried-grape wine are picked in late September in an overripe state and then dried for three months on racks in a humidity-controlled fruit room.

Cellar and vessels

The cellar lies beneath the old masonry family house. It combines traditional and modern equipment: 1,500-litre wooden casks, barriques, tonneaux, masonry tanks built in 1932 and stainless-steel tanks. The old masonry vessels remain in use for vinification, while stainless steel provides temperature control and inert maturation; the wooden formats allow maturation to be adapted to different lots.

Red-wine work

Red grapes may be gently crushed and destemmed or, for selected lots, fermented as whole bunches. Skin contact ranges from a few days to roughly 10–12 days. Extraction is managed with short, frequent or intensive pump-overs according to variety and intended style. More aromatically delicate varieties are macerated at lower temperatures, around or no higher than 25 °C, to protect varietal aroma. Some component varieties are vinified and matured separately, with malolactic fermentation taking place in oak, before blending shortly ahead of bottling.

Maturation spans steel or masonry tanks, 1,500-litre traditional oak casks, barriques and tonneaux. Regimes across the range include approximately 6–12 months in tank, 10–12 months in smaller oak, about 12 months in traditional 15-hl casks, around 15 months in separately held oak lots before blending, and a minimum of 40 months in tonneaux for a limited Grignolino selection. Some wines complete maturation with several months in bottle; a magnum Pinot Nero selection receives approximately 12 additional months in bottle after 18 months in tonneaux.

White, sweet and sparkling techniques

Still white grapes are softly pressed and fermented at controlled temperature, followed by several months in stainless steel. For the dried-grape style, overripe grapes picked in late September spend three months on racks under controlled humidity. After pressing, the must is cold-settled and ferments very slowly in new cherry-wood barriques, followed by 24 months in the same vessels.

Traditional-method sparkling production begins with an early August harvest. After the first fermentation, tirage takes place in bottle the following spring. The second fermentation is followed by maturation on the lees until disgorgement. Lees maturation is 20–24 months depending on vintage and format, while a special edition remained on its lees for 100 months. For the partially fermented sweet must, fermentation is arrested through filtration and low temperature, followed by two months of bottle maturation.