Our Visit to Olek Bondonio

Date of visit: October 17, 2022

About The Producer & Our Visit To Olek Bondonio

Olek Bondonio is not your typical Barbaresco producer, this was evident the moment we arrived at his estate. The winery is somewhat secluded, tucked away at the end of a long dirt road, and can be a bit tricky to find if it’s your first time visiting. When we arrived we weren’t certain if we were in the correct place, and in fact we weren’t, but we were close by. We parked our car and started heading toward what we now know was the wrong building. As we started walking towards it, we could hear “Fade to Black” by Metallica playing in the distance. We chuckled, and without hesitation followed the music to find Olek elbow deep in Barbera skins with Metallica blaring in the background. We knew right away that this was going to be a very, very cool visit.

Olek Bondonio is an award-winning champion snowboarder, who also shares a passion for surfing and skateboarding. Olek grew up in Turin, but spent summers at his family’s winery, “La Berchialla”, in Barbaresco. His mother is Polish, his father is Italian, and his family has owned vineyards in some of the greatest sites in all of the Barbaresco denomination for over 200 years. Among their holdings are vines in Roncagliette which are located adjacent to Gaja’s famed Sori Tilden vineyard. It’s worth noting that Olek’s great-great-grandfather was one of the founding members of Domizio Cavazza’s cooperative cellar in 1894, which we now know today as the well known and respected “Produttori Barbaresco”. It was around this time that Cavazza essentially “invented” the Barbaresco wine that we know and love today. So in a way, Olek’s great-great-grandfather, is one of the great-great-grandfather’s of Barbaresco so to speak, which we think is pretty amazing.

Over the years, Olek’s family produced wine for their own personal consumption, and would also sell their fruit to other producers. However, it wasn’t until Olek took over in 2005 that they began bottling their own wine. Prior to taking over the family winery, Olek studied enology and agronomy at the University of Turin, and traveled the wine world where he worked at wineries in France, Australia, Oregon, and New Zealand.

In addition to Olek’s holdings in Roncagliette, over the years Olek has acquired prime sites in Starderi and Altavilla. Today Olek produces two different Barberas, a Langhe Nebbiolo, a 100% Pelaverga known as “Langhe Rosso Giulietta”, two different Barbaresco (a single vineyard Roncagliette, and a single vineyard Starderi), and in some years he’ll produce wines which he may be experimenting with, such as, vermouth, pet nats, or a wine known as “N21 HL22” which is a blend of Nebbiolo, Barbera, Pelaverga, and Dolcetto. Olek’s wines are produced using a very hands-off approach with minimal intervention in the vineyards and cellar; minimal sulfites are added, some biodynamic practices are used in the vineyards, and large neutral oak and cement are used for aging.

Our visit to Olek Bondonio is one of the most memorable visits we’ve had to any producer. Not long after we arrived, Olek got to work pressing Barbera skins. He emphasized that he only does this with Barbera, and never Nebbiolo, otherwise the tannins are too harsh. We’d never watched this process in person before, and it was interesting to see how the juice released from the skin became deeper and more concentrated as the press went down further. It was even more interesting to taste the juice right off the press, which Olek gave us the opportunity to try at several different levels of the pressing to compare the differences in taste.

After tasting Barbera straight off the press, Olek turned things over to Sindi, who assists Olek in the cellar. Sindi took us around to the different stainless steel tanks where Barbera, Nebbiolo, and Pelaverga were fermenting, and we tasted each from the tanks. Some of the wines had been in there for less than a week, which was shocking given how approachable and complete they tasted, all things considered. This was the youngest we’d ever tasted a wine, and it was fascinating. Amongst these samples was a wine Sindi is working on, which will be bottled under her own label. The wine was already showing beautifully, and we look forward to tasting it again once bottled. After tasting through some samples from the stainless steel tanks we went back to Olek who was still pressing Barbera skins, and before you know it, we found ourselves driving the metal cart filled with freshly pressed Barbera skins outside the cellar, and helping Olek shovel skins into a large plastic tub. We did this for a couple of hours and had a ton of fun and laughs with Olek and Sindi who both have an unbelievable sense of humor, and are two of the most down to earth people we’ve ever met.

Later, we went downstairs with Sindi to a large room beneath the fermentation tanks, which Olek has transformed into an indoor skate park. The room is complete with a small half pipe, ramps, and is decorated with vintage skateboards on the walls. This is definitely not something you typically see in a Barbaresco wine cellar, or any wine cellar for that matter, and we happen to think it’s pretty cool. Sindi then brought us over to a room on this same floor which was filled with old wooden barrels where Barbaresco was aging, and we tasted various samples of Barbaresco from barrel. What was interesting about these samples was how approachable and complete the wines tasted, just like the samples from the fermentation tanks we’d tasted earlier. Of all the Nebbiolo samples we’ve tasted, these were some of the most approachable we’ve had the opportunity to try from any producer. We went back upstairs, Olek popped open a bottle of Barbera which was made by a different producer friend of his, and we drank this while we gave he and Sindi a hand cleaning up around the cellar.

Prior to us visiting Olek, we knew this would be an interesting visit, but nothing could have prepared us for this. Olek’s La Berchialla estate has no tasting room, no brochures, no signs that we noticed, and no website. Olek feels it’s better this way, and without a doubt, we agree. Instead of focusing on what’s essentially marketing nonsense, Olek devotes 100% of his efforts to time spent in the vineyards and cellar. Here we can say confidently that Olek Bondonio is crafting some of the finest wines to be produced in all of Langhe.

Thank You

Grazie mille Olek and Sindi for one of the greatest and most memorable visits we’ve ever had with any producer. We greatly appreciate you spending so much time with us during such a busy period, and for sharing your incredible wines with us. We’re so happy to have met you both, and to have made new friends. We hope to see you again very soon. A presto!

Citation: Barolo and Barbaresco: The King and Queen of Italian Wine by Kerin O’Keefe