Italiano
The world of wine mourns Michele Chiarlo
The well-known Piedmontese winemaker died this morning at the age of 88. The company he founded grew to 110 hectares of vineyards between Langhe, Monferrato and Gavi.
Michele Chiarlo passed away peacefully at the age of 88 at his home in Calamandrana. A wine producer and founder of the winery that bears his name, he was an absolute protagonist for the Nice appellation and an ambassador of Italian wine culture, bringing Barolo, Moscato and Barbera d'Asti to the world.
Born May 25, 1935, Michele Chiarlo has dedicated his life to the creation of quality wines and the enhancement of the territory. The son of winemakers, after middle school, he managed to get himself enrolled in the Alba wine school "on the condition that he would always be promoted." His fellow students were, like him, the future protagonists of Italian oenology: Pietro Ratti, Ezio Rivella, Franco Ziliani, Giuliano Noè and Giacomo Tachis. In 1956, when he was only 23 years old, he decided to begin his career as a wine entrepreneur, starting a bottling business with his sister and at the same time beginning to take care of the family farmhouse and vineyards. A firm believer in the Piedmontese winemaking tradition, his aspiration for excellence led him to painstakingly select and acquire the most vocated plots in Langhe, Monferrato and Gavi.
A driving force for the Asti area, Michele Chiarlo has always believed in the power of sharing and teamwork to achieve a greater and common goal, immediately glimpsing the potential of this area and working hard to bring prestige to the Barbera grape variety. A proponent and first president of the Association of Producers of Nizza docg, starting in the mid-1960s he was among the first Piedmontese producers to believe in the success of Italian wine abroad, tirelessly beating the Northern European and American markets, gaining the trust of importers and consumers worldwide. In his career as an entrepreneur, during the 1980s he also served as president of the Consortium of Barbera d'Asti and Wines of Monferrato, as well as being among the historic founders of the Consortium Grandi Vini-the first supra-regional association of wine producers created to promote the export of quality Italian wines-and the Istituto Grandi Marchi, for the promotion of the culture and tradition of Italian wine abroad.In 1995, Michele Chiarlo bought Tenuta La Court, in Castelnuovo Calcea, a single body of more than 20 hectares spread over two hills. For Michele Chiarlo, wine has never been just "wine," rather the sum of elements that are the basis of a community: history, culture, art, traditions, conviviality and, above all, territory, the true origin of each label. With this vision and with the collaboration of friends Emanuele Luzzati and Ugo Nespolo, the Art Park La Court was born in 2003, the first example of an art park among the rows of vines, an open-air museum with installations by internationally renowned artists such as the aforementioned Luzzati and Nespolo, Giancarlo Ferraris and Chris Bangle.
Michele leaves behind his wife Giuseppina and sons Alberto and Stefano, who joined the company years ago alongside their father. The Chiarlo family thanks all those who shared this extraordinary adventure with Michele, with the kind request to donate not flowers but a good deed to the AIRC Foundation for Cancer Research.
