Property Description
Are you a true wine lover?Are you a real estimator of Piemonte wines among the huge Italian portfolio?
Are you one of those that turns on their interest when hearing talking about the name Cerequio while brainstorming about the ‘King of the Wines’, the Barolo crus and best years?
Have you ever considered becoming one of the only 5, lucky owners (of which 3 are among the Italian Gotha’s producers…) of a property in Cerequio? Then, the below maybe worthy to keep reading for you…
I bought the property I am presenting here to you years ago, and I have always considered it as my ‘dream come true’ property. As said, it is located in one of the most historical and quoted ‘borgate’ of the Barolo’s Langhe: Borgata Cerequio.
While its wine tradition goes back to the Romans time, Cerequio was ranked as one of the historical 1st Class Crus of Barolo already at the end of 19th century and confirmed as such by the valuable ‘Guide of Barolo’s Crus’ of Renato Ratti, in 1980.
As a real wine lover, I could not believe to have been given such a chance at the time I have bought the property... but I was…
I did start picturing and planning in my head how to restore the property something like 3 minutes after entering into the house, not even having seen yet the little vineyard around the corner… In 3 minutes I did already confirm I wanted to become the new owner of the property!
In the past years, in between one working trip and the other, I have started some little renovation until the moment I have finally stopped travelling for work: by then I have immediately started to work on giving to the house the basic restoration it needed in order for me to live it and use it while caring about my main passion: my little vineyard!
Caring about the vineyard is, I always say, like caring about your child: it requires a huge, sincere effort and care, but provides you with incomparable rewards… I had the chance to perform my 4 harvest, and this is going to be a life time memory…
I will hopefully enjoy the results of my harvests in the next years to come: I did look for the top quality, what else, in Cerequio?... My friends, my wife and I are going to enjoy my wines for several years to come…
So: why am I here today telling you all of this then, you could (should) easily argue?
Well, you know that life never moves ahead as planned… I have strongly tried to make Cerequio as my home, the everyday home, but here’s the lost chance: my work is elsewhere, and, no matter how many trials I did, I simply have to accept the fact that work and Cerequio will not be able to cope neither today nor tomorrow…
If you share with me the same passion for wine, nature and Italian typical, hidden treasures, than you will easily understand how my heart is deeply sad to accept to let this ‘dream come true’ go. On the other hand, I am always thankful for the opportunities I am given by the life, and Cerequio has surely been one of them…
While owning the property, Cerequio has been awarded, together with the breath-taking wine territories of Langhe, Roero and Monferrato, with the UN World Heritage recognisance. This happened last year, in 2014 (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1390).
It is worthy to recall, in case needed, that Barolo is not the only ‘pearl’ of the area, obviously…
Langhe, Roero and Monferrato can claim many valuable treasures that makes this area of great appeal and value. Just to mention only few of them:
• Alba (14 km ) is the quoted worldwide ‘capital’ of the white truffle
• Still in Alba, the historical Ferrero family please us since ‘ages’ with products like Nutella (did you also grow up with it?) and Ferrero Rocher
• Bra (20 km ) host the headquarter of the Slow Food organisation (http://www.slowfood.com/) and its University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo (18 km) (http://www.unisg.it/)
• Furthermore, Bra is considered the ‘capital’ of the great universe of cheese, heritage of the Savoy culture (http://cheese.slowfood.com/en/)
• Piemonte host the famous ‘Razza Piemontese’ of ox, which delights with its fine and tasty meats, and Carru’ (23 km) is once a year the recognised ‘capital’ of the dedicated fair
• Some more wine? Barbaresco, Barbera d’Alba and Barbera d’Asti (with its new ‘cru’ Nizza http://ilnizza.net/index-uk.asp), Dolcetto, Asti Spumante, Arneis…
• And some other distance reference:
o Barolo (2 km)
o Barbaresco (25 km)
o Asti (42 km)
o Canelli (45 km)
o Nizza Monferrato (53 km)
o Milano
? Linate airport (175 km)
? Malpensa airport (190 km)
? City center (165 km)
o Torino
? Airport (105 km)
? City center (72 km)
o Genova (160 km)
o Monte Carlo (220 km)
o Nice (235 km)
o Cinque Terre (260 km)
I guess that is time now for some ‘practicality’ about the property…
It includes the main house’s body, a 240 sqm typical farm house from the late 1800’s (the oldest part of the small, cosy Borgata dates back to the mid 1700’s), built with local stones, bricks and wooden beams, a separate building of about 30 sqm once used for drying hay, front and backyard and obviously, last but not least, a 300 sqm of vineyard.
The house itself, conveniently directed in the south / north direction, is presently arranged in the following way:
• Basement:
o A ‘must have’ for the area, a cosy 50 sqm wine cellar with stone walls and bricks arc ceiling, the ‘hedonist’ room perfect for wine, cheese and prosciutto storage and aging
• Ground floor:
o Entrance to the house
o Storage room, presently used for wine making, thinkable as natural expansion of the kitchen and day living room
o Kitchen with original fireplace
o Two living rooms / bedrooms, one of which with direct access to the backyard of the house
o One bathroom
• First floor:
o Two bedrooms, one of which with original fireplace
o One 50 sqm living room, over 4 meters high wooden beams ceiling, overlooking Cerequio’s and Brunate’s vineyards
o Big balcony with original iron handmade handrails and a breath-taking view on the villages and the vineyards of Barolo, Monforte and Castiglione Falletto
• Second floor:
o Big storage space under the roof
The house is presently liveable meeting the basic needs but requires restoration to become your own dream house. Nevertheless, the roof has been already fully restored in 2013 with eco and energy savings concepts.
The 300 sqm vineyard is presently planted with Nebbiolo and Barbera grapes which may reward you with up to 150 bottles of great wine.
So, my dear wine lover reader, the ball is now on you: have you ever considered the real possibility of being one of the very few lucky ones owing a property inside the Borgata Cerequio wine paradise?…