Fabio Gea Mushroom Panda 2021

One of the craziest, funny and provocative winemakers we've met, Fabio Gea was a geologist by trade and has traveled around the world to study agriculture and soil conditions, but his world view is a constant chaos of new ideas and peculiar whims making him possibly somewhere between a genius and a madman.

The 1.8 hectares Fabio farms is from his maternal grandfather Nòtu, (diminutive for Giuseppe in dialect). It is made up of small parcels around different parts of Barbaresco mostly near the Bricco.

Fabio gradually developed his own sensitivity and approach to working in the vineyard heavily inspired by Masanobu Fukuoka. The cellar work is low-tech, manual and unmistakably Fabio. Stainless steel is gradually being phased out in favor of ceramics, porcelain, glass, cement and wood. Going so far as to craft his own porcelain amphoras. No temperature control, cultured yeast, fining or filtration, and the addition of sulphur is completely omitted for a large proportion of his cuvées.

He produces around 5000 bottles a year of 18 different wines. Some wines are traditional, others definitely outside-the-box.