Enrico Rivetto: Biodiversity, Barolo, and Breaking DOC Rules

On the hill of Vigna Lirano, between Serralunga d’Alba and Sinio, a thousand trees are growing where every Barolo manual would have planted vines. Enrico Rivetto put them there on purpose. He keeps bees, donkeys and old grain fields, and he makes wines that the DOC commission rejected twice for refusing to fit the box. Fourth generation, doing almost nothing the way his father did.

I spoke with him recently for a Sparks by VinoVonk episode and tasted two of his most radical bottles: the Lange Nascetta 2021, made from a near-extinct indigenous white grape, and the Nebbiolo dall’Anfora 2022 the appellation refused to recognise. What began as a tasting quickly turned into a conversation about agriculture, biodiversity, and what a vineyard is actually meant to be.

Thanks to Enrico for sending these wines and sharing his incredible story!

From Traditional Winemaker to “Trainer of Agricultural Organisms”

“I cannot be considered only a wine producer,” Enrico tells me. “Like a trainer of agricultural organisms, I can define myself in this way.”

That’s not wine marketing speak,it’s an accurate description of what he’s built over the past 17 years at his Vigna Lirano estate in the heart of Barolo, between the villages of Serralunga d’Alba and Sinio.

The Rivetto family has been making wine since 1902, and Enrico represents the fourth generation. But when he turned 30, something shifted. “I started a different approach in the vineyard and of course also in the cellar and of course also in my life,” he explains. “We decided to recreate one complex ecosystem.”

Why Biodiversity Matters in Barolo’s Monoculture Landscape

The Lange Hills are stunning,rolling vineyards as far as you can see. But that visual beauty hides an agricultural reality: extreme monoculture. “You see vineyards everywhere. But it’s never been like this,” Enrico points out. “Before, there was much more differentiation of the cultures.”

The scale of the intervention is serious. Over twelve years he planted more than a thousand mature trees (no saplings) and laid out five kilometres of biological corridors with rosemary, sage, lavender, mixed bushes and fruit trees. Around all of that sits seven hectares of woodland as a buffer zone for the cellar.

Donkeys move between the rows, six beehives handle pollination and honey, and fields of ancient wheat and heritage corn fill the gaps. A composting area closes the loop. Eighty-five percent of his working land sits on the same hill at four hundred metres, and it is exactly that concentration that makes real ecosystem management possible.

“Everything is on my hill,” Enrico says. “And that’s a big advantage.”

The Lange Nascetta: Rescuing an Indigenous White from Extinction

Our first wine is the Lange Nascetta 2021, a grape variety that completely disappeared from the Lange Hills after World War II. Today, only 45 producers make it,and Enrico is the only one with north-facing Nascetta vineyards.

“We release the Nascetta after three years,” he tells me. “We consider the Nascetta almost like a Barolo.”

That’s not hyperbole. French oenologists who studied Piedmont’s wines in the 18th century compared Nascetta to German Riesling for its aging potential. But when Enrico began working with it in 2007, there was almost no information available. “We changed the approach at least three times because we didn’t know anything about this grape variety.”

The Vinification: Part Red, Part White

The current vinification is split, and that split explains a lot of what happens in the glass. Thirty percent goes into the cellar as a red would: one month of skin contact and fermentation in concrete or terracotta amphora. The remaining seventy percent gets three days of cold maceration and then ferments spontaneously on wild yeasts.

Once both parts finish fermenting, they go together into large oak casks for nine months. The wine then rests another two years in bottle before release. The result is a white with real structure and ageing potential, freshness and depth in the same glass.

Nebbiolo dall’Anfora: Seven Months of Maceration and Zero DOC Approval

Our second wine is where Enrico’s philosophy really shines,or rather, where it crashes head-on with traditional wine regulations.

The Nebbiolo dall’Anfora 2022 spends seven months macerating on skins in terracotta amphora. For context: most red wines macerate for days or weeks, not months. “After the first three months, the tannin extraction was very aggressive,” Enrico recalls. “But after three, four months, these tannins are starting to build a chain, more sophisticated, moderate.”

What fascinates him about amphora is purity: “The amphora keeps and preserves the wine like it is because it’s skin. The skin is the wine.” No oak influence. No steel. No concrete. Just Nebbiolo and terracotta, breathing together for seven months.

The DOC Rejection Story

This wine was rejected twice by the appellation commission, not for defects,simply for being too different.

“I was a little bit angry about that. So not angry, but disappointed,” Enrico admits. “There’s no defect. This is probably the real Nebbiolo. There’s no influence of anything. And you reject it to the commission.”

His response? A form of protest. The label features artwork painted by his daughter when she was six years old (she’s now 16). It’s beautiful, personal, and completely defiant of wine label conventions.

“That was a form of protest. I remember my daughter was drawing my logo.”

My Tasting Experience

Lange Nascetta 2021

The Nascetta presents a fascinating contradiction: fresh yet structured, delicate yet powerful. On the palate, you feel the dual vinification,there’s white wine brightness combined with a subtle tannic grip from the 30% red vinification,with complex layers that keep unfolding.

It’s a wine that demands food, that rewards patience, that completely rethinks what Piedmont white wine can be.

Nebbiolo dall’Anfora 2022

When Enrico told me seven months of maceration, I braced for a tannic monster. But here’s the revelation: “You feel the tannins but in a very nice way. It’s still very fresh, very fruity, and a lot of roundness.”

He’s absolutely right. The tannins are present,you can’t hide seven months of skin contact,but they’re velvety, integrated, sophisticated. The wine has remarkable freshness for such an extraction. Different layers of taste and aromas, lots of herbs and spices, and yes, serious food-pairing potential.

This is pure Nebbiolo,no oak to soften or shape it, just the grape expressing itself through terracotta and time.

”Put Your Heart First, We’ll Find a Way for the Money”

Perhaps the most powerful moment in our conversation came when we discussed his philosophy on who works at the estate.

“The people who are coming here need to have heart. They have to put the heart in front. Afterward, we will find a way to secure the funds. It’s not the opposite.”

This isn’t naive idealism,it’s 17 years of evidence-based practice. “You have to put your talent, your passion, your soul inside. And after we find a way.”

The Quantum Effect of Small Actions

Toward the end of our conversation, Enrico shared something profound about change:

“If I do something, even if in a small place, even if on a small scale, the energy that it develops,somebody in some other part of the world can receive it and can do the same thing. Or maybe I’m doing this because somebody else is already inspiring me in a small detail, and the things change.”

His message is clear: don’t wait for someone else to solve problems. Start where you are, with what you have, and create change.

“We don’t have to expect that somebody do something for us. You have to do it yourself.”

Conclusion: When Wine Becomes Bigger Than Wine

Sitting across from Enrico (virtually), tasting these two remarkable wines, I was reminded why I love wine so much. It’s never just about what’s in the glass.

These wines tell the story of a man who looked at his family’s 122-year-old winery and asked: “What if we did everything differently?” They represent biodiversity restored, monoculture interrupted, indigenous grapes rescued, and traditions questioned.

The Nascetta brings back a nearly-lost piece of Piedmont’s heritage. The amphora Nebbiolo challenges what Barolo “should” taste like,and gets rejected for its honesty.

Both wines are available in the Netherlands (links in show notes). If you find yourself in Piedmont, Enrico welcomes visitors to Vigna Lirano to see the ecosystem firsthand.

Listen to the full episode of Sparks by VinoVonk for the complete conversation, including more details about his future dreams: creating a network of like-minded producers exchanging knowledge, products, and passion.

As Enrico says, if the music resonates with you, you’ll start dancing,maybe not the same way as everyone else, but in your own way.

Salute!