# Cascina delle Rose: Barbaresco Growers Named Vignaioli of the Year

_A Barbaresco family estate of 30,000 bottles takes a special award in Gambero Rosso's 40th Vini d'Italia._

> Il Vino Bello, 2026-10-26. Il Vino Bello editorial (https://ilvinobello.com/editorial/cascina-delle-rose-barbaresco-growers-named-vignaioli-of-the-year).

Gambero Rosso has named its growers of the year, and they farm five and a half hectares in Barbaresco. In the special awards of Vini d'Italia 2027, the guide's fortieth edition, announced on 25 October, the Vignaioli dell'anno title went to Davide and Riccardo Sobrino of [Cascina delle Rose](https://ilvinobello.com/wineries/cascina-delle-rose), a family estate in the hamlet of Tre Stelle. It is one of two special awards that came to Piemonte this year. The other, Giovani produttori dell'anno, went to Francesca and Davide Bonzano of [Castello di Uviglie](https://ilvinobello.com/wineries/castello-di-uviglie) in the Monferrato, whose story we told [earlier this month](https://ilvinobello.com/editorial/castello-di-uviglie-gambero-rossos-young-producers-of-the-year).

## The guide at forty

The numbers show how far the guide has come. The 2027 edition reviews 2,614 producers and more than 23,000 wines, against five hundred producers and fifteen hundred wines in the first edition of 1988, according to Linkiesta. It is edited by Giuseppe Carrus and Marco Sabellico, with William Pregentelli as deputy editor.

Of the 540 Tre Bicchieri, the guide's top mark, Toscana took 100 and Piemonte 82, well ahead of Veneto with 49. Fifty of the winning wines cost less than 15 euros in a wine shop, five of them less than 10, and 194 come from certified organic or biodynamic estates. Winery of the year went to Tommasi Family Estates in Veneto; for the anniversary, Antinori was named winery of the forty years and Josko Gravner grower of the forty years.

The editors' reading of Piemonte matches what we reported when the regional list came out on [16 October](https://ilvinobello.com/editorial/tre-bicchieri-2027-piemontes-winners-from-barolo-to-alta-langa): next to the great Nebbiolo wines, Alta Langa and the whites, "from Timorasso to Gavi", are consolidating, while Barbera "finds new expressions of freshness and drinkability" (our translation).

## A farmhouse in Tre Stelle

The story of Cascina delle Rose starts just after the war, when Beatrice and Ferdinando Rizzolio fell in love with a house that looks across the hills to the Alps. They bought it in 1948. At first only the grapes needed for the family's own wine were pressed; by 1984 and 1985 the whole crop was being vinified. Their granddaughter Giovanna moved in for good in 1974. "Here a dream was born: to carry on my grandparents' farm," she writes on the estate's site (our translation). Her husband Italo and their sons Davide and Riccardo now share the work.

The estate covers 6.5 hectares, 5.5 of them vineyard and the rest hazelnut grove and woodland, and makes about 30,000 bottles a year. Davide runs the vineyards. The family says all its vineyards are certified organic, that weeds under the vines are controlled only by machine hoeing and cutting, and that copper and mined sulphur are kept to the minimum needed. Davide was already named best grower under 40 at the Autochtona Award in 2020.

## Three Barbaresco crus

The heart of the range is Barbaresco from single crus. [Tre Stelle](https://ilvinobello.com/wines/cascina-delle-rose-tre-stelle), from four small parcels facing south and south-west at 250 to 310 metres, won Tre Bicchieri in this year's guide for its 2023 vintage. The estate describes rose and violet, wild red berries and a quick, silky tannin, and says it drinks well young as well as with age.

[Rio Sordo](https://ilvinobello.com/wines/cascina-delle-rose-rio-sordo) comes from two small parcels facing south-west at 310 metres, on bluish marl that sits one to three metres below the surface. The family describes it as deeper and more austere, with dark fruit and sweet spice. Last year's guide gave Tre Bicchieri to the 2022.

Both are made in much the same way: picked by hand, fermented in steel, then a long maceration on the skins of around 30 to 35 days, with a submerged cap for Rio Sordo and a semi-submerged one for Tre Stelle. The wines age for about 20 to 22 months in large untoasted oak casks, are bottled on a waning moon, and are neither filtered nor fined.

The newest cru is [Marcorino](https://ilvinobello.com/wines/cascina-delle-rose-marcorino), in the neighbouring comune of Neive. The family took on this small vineyard, planted in 1944, in 2018, and announced its first vintage for release from 2024. Because there is so little of it, the estate offers it first to its longstanding customers.

## Bottles for the weekday table

Not everything here needs years in the cellar. On our site you will also find the [Langhe Nebbiolo](https://ilvinobello.com/wines/cascina-delle-rose-langhe-nebbiolo), from a single Barbaresco vineyard and aged only in steel and cement; the Dolcetto d'Alba [A Elizabeth](https://ilvinobello.com/wines/cascina-delle-rose-a-elizabeth), which the estate calls an everyday wine; a [Barbera d'Alba](https://ilvinobello.com/wines/cascina-delle-rose-barbera-d-alba) from vineyards in Barbaresco and Neive; and the Barbera d'Alba Superiore [Donna Elena](https://ilvinobello.com/wines/cascina-delle-rose-donna-elena), aged about 18 to 20 months in large Slavonian oak.

## Visiting, and staying

Cascina delle Rose is a working farm first, and says so. Visits are by appointment only, for trade and wine lovers alike, and there are no set "tourist tours": each tasting is arranged to suit the guests, walks through the vineyards and the cellar, and ends with the wines. Groups are limited to eight people, and no food is served with the tasting.

The family has also hosted travellers in the farmhouse for more than 25 years. Four self-catering apartments, for two to four guests, look over Barbaresco, the Rio Sordo valley and the Alps. For a tasting, write to the family ahead of time.

## Sources

- https://www.agroalimentarenews.com/gambero-rosso-2027-vini-italia-premi/ (25 Oct 2026)
- https://www.italianfoodtoday.it/2026/10/25/vini-ditalia-gambero-rosso-tommasi-family-estates-cantina-dellanno/ (25 Oct 2026)
- https://www.linkiesta.it/2026/10/quarantanni-di-vino-italiano-dentro-una-guida/ (Oct 2026)
- https://vinodabere.it/gambero-rosso-i-tre-bicchieri-2027-del-piemonte/ (16 Oct 2026)
- https://www.cascinadellerose.it/
- https://www.cascinadellerose.it/la-nostra-storia/
- https://www.cascinadellerose.it/territorio/
- https://www.cascinadellerose.it/vino/barbaresco-docg-tre-stelle/
- https://www.cascinadellerose.it/vino/barbaresco-docg-rio-sordo/
- https://www.cascinadellerose.it/vino/barberesco-docg-marcorino/