Chi siamo – Malabaila di Canale

Malabaila di Canale

Our story

The Malabaila, a noble family from the city of Asti, have been present since the 1200s in the territory of Canale, and the bond between the family and the wines of the Roero is documented in numerous records preserved in the historical archive.

The first reference to a vineyard intended for wine production dates back to 1362. The archive preserves nine handwritten letters in which, starting from 1598, the Dukes of Savoy and the Prince of Piedmont requested the wines of Count Malabaila for use at court on the occasion of great celebrations and the marriage of their children.

From the 1700s, Luigi Gerolamo Malabaila, Italian ambassador to the Austrian court, began exporting his wines to the major European capitals.

Today, the story of Malabaila wines continues to grow generation after generation: Lucrezia Carrega Malabaila, a direct descendant, and Valerio Alfredo Falletti carry forward that forward-looking project, connected to the expression of the land and to quality, in a collaboration that brings together experience and new sensibilities, in search of unexplored paths to tell the story of the beauty of the Roero.

Our philosophy

Our vision is based on the belief that every vineyard is unique and must express its own identity: “one vineyard, one wine”.

The zoning of our hills is fundamental: each parcel tells a different story, influenced by the soil, the exposure, and the slope.

Respect for tradition, the environment, and biodiversity lies at the heart of our philosophy. For this reason, we promote practices that are increasingly in harmony with nature, eliminating the use of herbicides and opting for natural fertilization, with growing attention to the health of the soil and of nature.

Art

Art is an integral part of our identity. Wine and art are two different worlds, yet they have been a source of mutual inspiration since ancient times.

Since 2021, each of our bottles has featured on its label an original artwork by Lucrezia, commercial manager and painter: each painting represents a wine and describes its essence, its character, and its story through an immediate and slightly dreamlike visual language.

The cellar

The winery is designed with large working spaces and a structure that rests directly on the ground on several sides, helping to maintain better internal humidity stability. In addition, part of the winery is partially underground and protected by the hill, a solution that allows constant temperatures to be maintained throughout the year.

Modern tanks and new winemaking equipment have been introduced with the aim of further refining the winemaking processes.

The proximity to the vineyards, together with greater control of environmental conditions and ongoing technological investments, makes it possible to process the grapes more precisely and to obtain higher-quality wines.

The renovation was carried out in full respect of the historical character of the place. Inside the winery there is still a 19th-century cave hand-carved into the tuff, which offers ideal conditions for the aging and the storage of the bottles.

Today the winery uses steel, concrete, and wooden barrels of different sizes, tools that allow the various stages of winemaking and aging to be managed in the best possible way.

Roero terroir

Our estate extends over approximately 65 hectares, of which 22 are planted with vineyards. The remaining part of the land is occupied by hazelnut groves and oak and chestnut woods, which help maintain a balanced ecosystem around the vineyards.

The hills around Canale are characterized by soils composed of marine sands, marls, and clays dating back to the Pliocene, a period when this area was covered by the sea. Even today the soil contains fossils and marine sediments, traces of this ancient origin.

It is a soft, permeable, and mineral-rich soil, conditions that are particularly favorable for the cultivation of the vine and the production of wines that precisely express the character of the territory.