During a trip to Piedmont in 2022 we toured around with Renato and Elisa from Bricco Ernesto. An overarching theme was how cool it is to be a winemaker lately and how everyone is starting their own project. The question is, which people will still be here in five years? Which people are more than Instagram hungry weekend warriors, regardless of how famous their terroir is (or isn’t)?

Casa Tallone was the blast of cool air to reframe a series of visits that were good but also left us unsure for various reasons. Matteo and Davide are two brothers scrapping it out, piecing together parcels of land bit by bit, and placing nearly all of their focus in the vineyard. Even though their land is humble by today’s market trends, this is historic land that makes geeks salivate with its shallow soils, steep hillsides, and overgrown feel.

Davide is the older brother and the most sentimental of the two, with a bit of an old-soul, cerebral vibe. Although he does have an Oenology dregree, Davide also works at Valfaccenda with Luca and gets to shadow Roero’s most visible proponent for authenticity and terroir driven expressions. In fact, Luca gave us a bottle of their 2021 Cisterna d’Asti in the morning the day we visited the brother’s cellar.

Matteo is more analytical and hands on, feeling at home in the vineyards with dirt under his fingernails. He has a patchwork of experience throughout The Langhe and in the new world, in places such as New Zealand.

Casa Tallone, San Damiano d’Asti based summer residence of impressionist artist Cesare Tallone, is the family home of young brothers Davide and Matteo. Having grown up with one foot in Asti and one in bordering Roero, the duo make wine from both appellations.

Aside from producing Roero Arneis from MGA Pattarone in Vezza d’Alba, they are humble champions for the historic appellation for Bonarda di Piemonte (Croatina), Cisterna d’Asti. Presently, production for the ENTIRE appellation of Cisterna d’Asti is 17,000 bottles annually; a fraction of what it was generations ago. The best way for us to describe Cisterna d’Asti (with our limited experience), is that Bonarda from this land is complete and ageworthy in expression, yet remains immediate in comparison to the nobility of Nebbiolo. Their vision is to be the modern leader of Cisterna d’Asti.

Starting in 2024, Davide and Matteo also have a plot of Nebbiolo coming online from MGA Muschiavin, in the commune of Montaldo Roero.

Looking longer term, they have a vision for an agriturismo - a farmhouse project, as they put it. A place with a few guest rooms and chickens among the various gardens and fruit orchards.

Farming is natural with a slant towards biodynamics, and cellar work is simple and unforced—the pair practice long and slow native yeast fermentations in concrete, with aging in concrete or neutral barrel. Wines are bottled unfined and unfiltered. These wines are true expressions of the land with no tricks or manipulations.

I was blinded on their Arneis and first thought something French based on the fineness of texture, but was thrown off by a salty edge and subtle grip that is so common of land driven Arneis.

We’re proud to be the second US importer for this young domaine that we believe has a bright future.