Elvio Cogno

Elvio was joined by his son-in-law, Valter Fissore, who quickly took over winemaking duties and now currently oversees the entire estate with his wife Nadia and their daughter Elena. It was under Valter that the individuality of the Ravera Cru became apparent. He focused on working meticulously in the vineyards, working cleanly but traditionally in the winery, and splitting out parcels within Ravera for separate bottling. Valter has a degree in enology and has a staggering understanding of the science behind making wine, however, he always uses his technical knowledge only as support. He first focuses on how the grapes taste, rather than what the labs tell him, to inform his decisions in the vineyard and the winery.

Over the past two decades, Valter’s winemaking has improved. The wines were good, but now they great, and deliver some of the purest and most elegant expressions of Nebbiolo from Piedmont. His macerations are generally on the longer side–30-40 days–but with controlled temperatures. He uses almost exclusively neutral oak (the exception being the dolcetto that he uses to “break in” new barrels) larger-sized barrels. He believes in extended time in barrel and bottle to give the wines time to integrate. I can’t say enough about the quality of wines coming from the Elvio Cogno estate, they are high-toned, pure expressions of Nebbiolo and they have an amazing sense of place. He has gone so far as to split apart his Nebbiolo bottlings by clone type, hence the Ravera, Bricco Pernice, and Vigna Elena bottlings, though they also come from different parts of the Ravera Cru. If you haven’t tried these wines, now is the time as they are getting noticed in a very big way.