Painting the thumbnail portrait of Elio Grasso is beyond my ken. Elio is a man of great character…and, well, a character. Elio’s parents saved to send their eldest to university. But city life was not for Elio. He left a banking career to take over the family estate. A comfortable routine was replaced by the full workload of the farm (winery) with concurrent courses in oenology and agronomy.

Aided by his “treasure”, wife Marina, Elio Grasso developed his family’s great vineyards and small cantina into a model, modern Barolo estate. Elio turned over the primary winemaker/cellar master duties to son Gianluca in 1999. At age 56 Elio, though still the boss, prefers to be in the open air working and supervising in the vineyards. Now that there are two strong men on hand, the attention to detail here has brought Elio’s fine winery to a very special level.