On September 9 this year (2025), in the heart of Verduno in the city’s beautiful castle, the Verduno è uno association launched a fantastic and fun day-long celebration in honour of 30 years of the Verduno Pelaverga denomination (DOC).  The day’s celebratory activities included a guided tasting of the new 2024 vintage of Verduno Pelaverga (seventeen wines in all) for the press; a standout lunch in the Castello di Verduno restaurant featuring a selection of all the wines of the Verduno è Uno association producers (so not just Verduno Pelaverga, but also wines made with Barbera, Freisa, Barolo, Nebbiolo, Favorita, Arneis and more); and an afternoon conference featuring presentations from researchers, local historians, the original Mayor and Vice-Mayor who helped arrive at the establishment of the Verduno Pelaverga DOC, and the announcement of the first ever individual named “Herald of Verduno Pelaverga”.

This milestone is an especially important one given it concerns a rare Italian native grape and wine, and a handful of producers. Pelaverga Piccolo is the grape native to, and that grows only in, the territory of the commune of Verduno (with minimal historical holdings in La Morra and Roddi, two small nearby towns that along with Verduno are actually better-known for being three of eleven communes that can produce Barolo). It is used to make the just as rare but exceptionally popular and well-selling wine called Verduno Pelaverga. Currently, only seventeen wineries estate-bottle the wine (though that number is rising year after year). There are also about as many bottlers. You realize that’s not a lot of people who get to make Verduno Pelaverga, in a country that is 55 million strong.

The Verduno Pelaverga DOC designation was officially born in 1995, created to recognize and protect a wine that had been part of the agricultural and cultural identity of this local sliver of Langhe for centuries. Thirty years after that recognition, it is clear that Verduno Pelaverga has been an incredible success story, with continuously increasing sales all over the world, thanks to the commitment and passion of vintners, their families, technicians and communicators, as well as restaurateurs, sommeliers, journalists and sector professionals all of whom were proud of their local grape and wine, believed in them, and, in various ways and in various roles, helped crystallize their potential and cemented their success for present and future wine-loving generations.

The roots of this milestone can be traced back to the foresight and determination of six local producers (Gabriella Burlotto, Marina Burlotto, GianCarlo Burlotto, Antonio Brero, Gian Batta Alessandria, Giuseppe Priola), then Mayor Renata Salvano and the technical support from friends and collaborators (Paola Oberto, Luigi Veronelli, Franco Mannini, Francesco Arrigoni, Leonardo Valenti, Andrea Schubert, Lorenzo Corino). In an extremely insightful comment, Renata Salvano told the large audience gathered at the Castello di Verduno during the conference and presentation of the commemorative plaques that “Everything went smoothly because no one obstructed the path we wished to undertake, the high priests of the high temples of the time didn’t think much of us and didn’t fear us, so they let us get on with our business“. If you know Italy at all, you realize just how true that statement is. Gabriella Burlotto noted that “… the village of Verduno and the DOC Verduno Pelaverga have grown together, one thanks to the other“. And that is also very true.

In this historic occasion, the association also wished to celebrate those individuals who share a love for Pelaverga Piccolo and its wine, and who over the years have recognized, encouraged and supported the association’s work.

Master of Ceremonies of the afternoon conference was Sandro Minella, recently named the spokesperson for the association Verduno è Uno, representing the history of its members, the wine grape, the wine and its territory. Giancarlo Montaldo, a local journalist and historian (and also ex-Mayor of the town of Barbaresco for two different terms and six years), presented data on production figures of the thirty years of Verduno Pelaverga’s official existence. In another extremely interesting presentation, researcher Maurizio Petrozziello shared his latest data and results on the aromatic profile of Verduno Pelaverga, that makes the wine unique (Pelaverga Piccolo is a moderately aromatic red grape variety and its wine expresses one of the higher concentrations of rotundone in red wine, for example). Last but not least, Ian D’Agata was named the first ever ‘Herald” of Verduno Pelaverga, in honour of his thirty-plus years of work devoted to Italy’s native grape varieties and their wines, and above all his incessant passion, support, and encouragement for the producers of the Verduno è Uno association and Verduno Pelaverga. “What can I say, except that it is an immense honour and one that I will remember and cherish for the rest of my life” said D’Agata during his thank-you speech. “It is uniquely touching to be recognized for my work by an association of Italian wineries making wine from an Italian native grape, those grapes that nobody was talking or writing about as recently as 1999-2000 and that I first shone the spotlight on systematically with my books and my educational activities all over the world, a lifetime dedicated to these specific grapes, wines and people. Therefore, you can understand what this means to me. I also wish to add that in the extremely troubled modern world we live in, with their uniqueness and strong grass-roots movement, the producers of Verduno è Uno represent a shining beacon of what human passion, faith, hard work and team spirit can accomplish, a meritorious, highly positive example for younger generations everywhere to be inspired by and to follow. I hold Pelaverga Piccolo, Verduno Pelaverga, and the producers dear to my heart, and will always be available for them, any time, any place.”  

Just as the town of Verduno has grown and distinguished itself in the world with the emergence of the Verduno Pelaverga DOC, the association has also progressively structured itself with the presence of valuable supporters such as the aforementioned individuals, who enable and strengthen the resolve of the Verduno Pelaverga’s producers to continue in their daily commitment to the DOC and the territory.

Ian D’Agata and everyone at the Ian D’Agata Wine Review wish to thank the Verduno è Uno association for the incredible honour bestowed upon all of us, and wish to seize this opportunity to wish everyone in the association not just thirty more years of successes, but 3000!