VINCHIO VAGLIO’s LATEST NEWS

President of Vinchio Vaglio, Lorenzo Giordano, amongst the vines

Vinchio Vaglio is a dynamic cooperative in Piedmont leading the way for old-vine Italian producers and setting the standard for other cooperatives worldwide. Each year they publish their annual update which explains in detail their dedication to continued improvement for people, plants, planet and profit.

January 2026

Vinchio Vaglio is a cooperative that, since its foundation in 1959, has pursued two objectives: quality and ever-improving remuneration for its winegrowers. Until a few decades ago, it achieved these goals by producing excellent Barbera to be sold in bulk, but since the early 2000s, President Lorenzo Giordano (pictured above) chose to increase the quality, at a point that today 100% of production is sold in bottle or bag in box. Approximately 1,000,000 bottles and 700,000 bag-in-boxes are produced every year, with positive turnover on the domestic market and abroad. The cooperative continues to sell more Barbera grapes than anyone else in the area. Winegrowers are increasingly recognised for the extremely difficult work they face every year in cultivating their magnificent but challenging hillsides.

Approximately 500 hectares of vineyards, almost 80% of which are Barbera, offer different interpretations of this versatile grape variety. The value for money for which Vinchio Vaglio is now renowned has done the rest. President Lorenzo Giordano says he is ‘grateful to every single winegrower who has agreed to plant and manage their vineyards according to the advice of the agronomist and winemaker, admitting that the effort required gives the return needed to make excellent wines sold at increasingly profitable prices.’

For decades now, the winery has been considering the work required to maintain vineyards over 50 years old, which are the grapevines for some of the winery’s most iconic wines, such as “Vigne Vecchie” and “Vigne Vecchie 50” and since the 2000’s “Sei Vigne Insynthesis”, one of the winery's top wines, and “Nizza”, which comes from the beautiful “Laudana” hill from which it takes its name. Similarly, vineyards over 30 years old contribute to the production of “I Tre Vescovi”, undoubtedly the flagship wine of the cooperative. The cooperative recognises to these small winegrowers a compensation that is related to the highest expenses as well as the extra efforts these old vineyards demand. This is how we can also count on a generational change that is necessary to preserve the uniqueness of this area, which has made it a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The steep vineyards & hillsides of the area

Those who have not seen how steep the hillsides in the area are, cannot understand the passion and effort it takes to continue cultivating them. This commitment has also been recognised by the Old Vine Conference (www.oldvineconference.org), a non-profit association founded by two Masters of Wine that selects producers of wines from old vineyards around the world, helping to promote and enhance them. But a cooperative winery also has a social responsibility, which is why, in addition to the “old vineyards” project, which preserves an irreplaceable heritage of quality and biodiversity, Vinchio Vaglio is an Equalitas-certified sustainable winery and has been publishing its sustainability report for four years, which is in fact a triangle with three equally important summits: territory, people and economy. This means carefully considered choices, starting with the agronomic management of the vineyards and continuing with a minimal presence of sulphites in the wines.

The glass bottles weigh less than 420 grams for 80% of production. Corks, where possible, are technical rather than natural. A bag-in-box bottling machine, seen not as a refuge for poor-quality wines, but as a highly sustainable choice because it reduces the carbon footprint by 7%, making quality wines known throughout the world. Not to mention the solar panels systems that make the winery energy self-sufficient. Furthermore, the winery has always been a point of reference for the growth of the territory, ever since it was at the forefront of the design and creation of the Val Sarmassa Natural Reserve Park, on the edge of which it also created the “percorso nei Nidi” (path through the nests) (hand-woven willow structures under which you can stop for a picnic), built the Big Bench n.94, placed installations of the Piedmontese artist Giancarlo Ferraris and created the herbs garden.

Awards and scores that are highly respectable and ever-increasing are proof of the company's all-round work. To name but a few:

· from Italy, Gambero Rosso awarded Tre Bicchieri to Vigne Vecchie 50 2023 and 2 red glasses to Vigne Vecchie Barbera d'Asti Sup. 2021, the Guida Vini Buoni d'Italia with the Corona d'Oro to Nizza DOCG Laudana 2022, the 3 Stelle Oro della Guida Veronelli to Barbera d'Asti Superiore DOCG Sei Vigne Insynthesis 2020. In addition to Wine Hunter, which awarded 5 wines with the gold medal, and finally, the “Faccino” of Doctorwine, alias Daniele Cernilli, to the Nizza Riserva Sei Vigne Insynthesis 2019.

· from abroad, Falstaff, Suckling, Drink Business, IWSC, Decanter, as well as various competitions such as the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, which awarded medals and scores well above 90/100 https://vinchio.com/en/company/guides-and-awards-2025/.

But the cooperative’s management is an expression of true Piedmontese, men and women who do not give up and certainly do not rest on their laurels. In fact, the Managing Director Marco Giordano has already important projects in place to continue growing: "We are proud of the excellent results achieved in a such difficult time, but we firmly believe that we cannot stop and must continue to grow and invest. For 2026, investments are planned, both technological, such as doubling our Bag in Box packaging line, and structural, such as the restoration of the oldest part of the cellar, which dates back to 1959 and, in addition of being a historical site, is also the production hub including more than 160 concrete tanks used in large part to make our old-vine Barbera wines, which have been kept in perfect condition internally and which we have decided to restore aesthetically'.

Find out more about Vinchio Vaglio’s work with old-vines via their member profile, directly on their website www.vinchio.com and follow them @vinchiovaglio.

Harvest time for Vinchio Vaglio vineyard workers.