Inside Canova: The Neive Vineyard Behind Scarpa’s Tettineive Barbaresco

Antica Casa Vinicola Scarpa, the Nizza Monferrato house founded in 1900, has been buying Nebbiolo from the Barbaresco commune of Neive since the 1960s, and in 2018 it bought two hectares of the Canova cru outright. Visitors to Barbaresco this fall can taste their way through the appellation’s crus at the Piacere Barbaresco weekends, run by the Enoteca Regionale del Barbaresco in the former church of San Donato on the village square until November 29. 

Where Is the Canova Vineyard? 

Scarpa’s Canova vineyard is in Neive, on the last ridge before the Barbaresco denomination gives way to the first hills of Monferrato. It runs down from Bricco di Neive toward the plain and looks across at the edge of town. The soils are mostly sandy, and the two hectares, about five acres, carry vines planted in 1968, 1970, 1997 and 2008. 

“We bought from Neive for fifty years before we owned a row of it,” says Davide Champion, chief executive of Scarpa. “Sand rather than heavy clay, old vines, and a Nebbiolo that comes out scented instead of broad.” 

How Is Tettineive Made? 

Scarpa bottles the Canova fruit as Tettineive, a Barbaresco DOCG of 100% Nebbiolo. In Scarpa’s cellars, the grapes spend 23 days on the skins in 54-hectoliter (about 1,400-gallon) wooden vats, with two hand pump-overs a day, then move to steel until malolactic fermentation finishes. After that come 24 months in a single 45-hectoliter (about 1,200-gallon) Allier oak cask and another 12 months in bottle. The Barbaresco DOCG rules require 26 months of aging, nine of them in wood. 

“A cask that size does almost nothing, very slowly,” Champion says. “Then it sits in glass for a year, because the tannin that has just been bottled is not the tannin you want to pour.” 

What Does Tettineive Taste Like? 

The current release of Tettineive is the 2021, which has scored 94 from Ian d’Agata, 93 from Club Oenologique and 92 from both James Suckling and Wine Enthusiast. Garnet in color, it shows sweet violet and red fruit with balsamic and leather notes. The tannins are pronounced but elegant, and the house gives it a life of more than twenty years. 

Where Does Scarpa Make Barolo? 

Scarpa also draws on two further Barolo crus in the Langhe. It has two hectares of Monvigliero in Verduno, the vineyard the house calls the “grand cru” of the village, and 1.2 hectares, about three acres, of Roncaglie near La Morra, which faces south-east on silty-loamy soils with a good share of sand. Canova is its Barbaresco. 

“People taste the Barolos first and expect the Barbaresco to be a quieter version of them,” Champion says. “Canova gives a wine you can open younger and still forget about for twenty years.” 

Who Makes Scarpa’s Wines?

Few hands have shaped Scarpa’s style since Antonio Scarpa founded the house in 1900. Mario Pesce bought it from him in 1949. Pesce’s nephew Carlo Castino became the director of wine production and held the role until he retired in 2007, and he still lives above the cellars. His successor, the enologist Silvio Trinchero, learned his trade at Scarpa and makes the wine today under Champion. Since 2017 the house has been owned by Evgeny Strzhalkovskiy. It also keeps the Borgo in Verduno, renovated in 2017: four houses, Tettineive, La Bogliona, I Bricchi and Tettimorra, that form a single connected property with shared outdoor space, rented exclusively for a retreat, a company team, a family or a group of friends. 

The tasting season in Barbaresco ends on November 29. The season for the 2021 Tettineive will be much longer.