Roero: fossil sand and the Rocche
West to east from the high sandy ground of the Roero, down the gullied edge of the Rocche, to Canale in the Borbore valley. Tap a layer to read it.
Swipe the plate sideways to see the whole section.
Schematic. The sequence (Argille di Lugagnano, Sabbie di Asti, then river and lake deposits) is the published Roero stack, drawn here with a gentle westward dip; the boundaries are hand-placed. Santo Stefano Roero lies 0.6 km off the line. Malabaila's vineyards are in the Canale hills, but the exact position of Bric Volta is not known to us. Check against the ISPRA sheet and the Regione Piemonte Roero studies.
4 layers, youngest at the top
Single vineyards we pour from. Tap one on the plate.
Why Roero wines are light-footed
- Sand holds little water or clay, so tannins stay fine and the fruit stays bright.
- Shell fragments give the sand a little lime; the wines' freshness comes more from the light, fast-draining ground.
- The Rocche cut the hills into steep, narrow ridges with sharp exposures.
- Where the clay comes close to the surface the wines gain body and depth.
Did you knowThe Rocche were cut after the Tanaro was captured and swung east, sometime in the last few hundred thousand years. The lower base level set the streams eating back into the soft sand.
Pas Mal wines on this ground
Sources: Forno, on the capture of the Tanaro (CAI 2025 abstract); GNGTS 2019 on the Roero Plio-Pleistocene; Regione Piemonte, Roero rocche exhibition notes; Vinum, Roero facts and figures; Malabaila grower data; AWS Terrain Tiles.