Gian Luca Colombo is the guy that everyone is talking about in Barolo. Everyone wants him to help. He won the Gambelli award for best young winemaker in Italy in 2014, and is a pioneer of the neo-classical movement in the region, in which he has adopted a Burgundian approach to Barolo and the Nebbiolo grape, focussing on the effect of the different soils, elevations and exposures, and very gentle handing in the cellar to ensure the terroir is expressed in the most transparent way possible. He works alongside a winemaker who is a consultant in Barbaresco, who makes the wine at esteemed Bruno Giacosa. They taste together, and talk together. The point is here is, that anything exciting happening in Barolo and Barbaresco, Gian Luca is probably aware of. And likely to be involved with!
As well as his consulting, Gian Luca has a very small production of his own. He is a garagiste in this regard, with the wine being quite literally made in his garage, with a little extension for his Stockinger Austrian oak foudres, and a couple of amphora. Practicing organic with some regenerative practices too, he makes beautiful wines - silky, elegant, perfumed, fine, gentle and poised, where the complexities develop with time in the glass, or over the years.
