Elio Altare is one of the pioneers behind the modern interpretation of Barolo. An interpretation that he also had a hard time getting through to his father. The first showdown with the father was whether to make the wine yourself or whether to sell the grapes. The father had previously sold the grapes to collectors, but Elio wanted to make the wine himself. Visits to Burgundy inspired the next; in 1978, Elio began harvesting greenery in the family fields. However, it only went completely wrong when Elio, with a chainsaw, cut the old large wooden barrels – botti – into pieces, with the consequence that his father threw him at the gate and made him hereditary. After the father’s death, the sister, who was otherwise no longer interested in wine, inherited the family estate Cascina Nuova and the vineyards.
Elio took out a bank loan to buy Cascina Nuova from his sister and reportedly paid the last installment in 1997. Since 1983, Altare has taken advantage of short maceration times and some use of barriques. For three years, Altare experimented with rotor fermenters but later estimated that some of the terroir in the wines was lost.