Giuseppe Rinaldi Barolo

The official name of this winery is Rinaldi Giuseppe Azienda Agricola.
For much more information on the history of the winery and its wines and labels, as well as some wines not listed in the table, see the notes at the bottom of the page.

Clickable entries in the chart below are linked to a photo of one or more labels for that wine.
- If you have a photo of a wine that I do not, or if you have a better photo than the one here, and you would like to contribute your photo, please email it to me (kenvastola at gmail.com).
Table Key: N = Non-Reserve, R = Reserve, X = None Made, * = Special Label, ? = I have no information.

I have high confidence in the entries in bold font, less for the non-bold.

For an explanation of the Barolo vineyard headings in the chart, see the section of the notes on Vineyards Today.

Vintage Tre Tine Brunate

2013 N N

2012 N N

2011 N N

2010 N N

Vintage Tre Tine Brunate

Vintage Barolo Brunate Brunate-LeCoste CannubiSanLorenzo-Ravera

2009 X X N N

2008 X X N N

2007 X X N N

2006 X X N N

2005 X X N N

2004 X X N N

2003 X X N N

2002 X X N ?

2001 X X N N

2000 X X N N

Vintage Barolo Brunate Brunate-LeCoste CannubiSanLorenzo-Ravera

1999 X X N N

1998 X X N N

1997 X X N N

1996 X X N N

1995 N X N N

1994 X X N N

1993 X N N N

Vintage Barolo Brunate Brunate-LeCoste CannubiSanLorenzo-Ravera

Vintage Barolo Brunate

1992 ? N

1991 ? N

1990 N R

Vintage Barolo Brunate

1989 ? R

1988 ? R

1987 N ?

1986 ? R, R*

1985 N R, R*

1984 N ?

1983 N ?

1982 N R

1981 ? ?

1980 N R

Vintage Barolo Brunate

1979 N ?

1978 N R

1977 X X

1976 N ?

1975 N ?

1974 N R

1973 N ?

1972 X X

1971 N R

1970 N R

Vintage Barolo Brunate

1969 N X

1968 N X

1967 N R

1966 ? X

1965 N X

1964 N R

1963 ? X

1962 N X

1961 N X

1960 ? X

Vintage Barolo Brunate

1959 N X

1958 N, R X

1957 N X

1956 N X

1955 N X

1954 ? X

1953 N X

1952 ? X

1951 ? X

1950 ? X

Vintage Barolo Brunate

1949 ? X

1948 ? X

1947 ? X

1946 ? X

1945 R X

1944 ? X

1943 ? X

1942 ? X

1941 ? X

1940 ? X

Vintage Barolo Brunate

1939 ? X

1938 ? X

1937 ? X

1936 ? X

1935 ? X

1934 ? X

1933 ? X

1932 ? X

1931 ? X

1930 ? X

Vintage Barolo Brunate

1929 ? X

1928 ? X

1927 N X

1926 ? X

1925 ? X

1924 ? X

1923 ? X

1922 ? X

1921 N X

1920 ? X

Vintage Barolo Brunate

Table Key: N = Non-Reserve, R = Reserve, X = None Made, * = Special Label, ? = I have no information.

Notes, History, and Some Non-Barolo Labels

Winery Name

The official name of this winery is Rinaldi Giuseppe Azienda Agricola.
The Giuseppe Rinaldi referred to in the name of the winery is not the recent owner and winemaker, but his grandfather.
To avoid confusion, we will refer to the recent Giuseppe Rinaldi (who passed away in 2018) as Beppe Rinaldi.

Winery History

The Rinaldi family has been in the wine business for at least 5 generations.
Giovanni Rinaldi founded the Giovanni Rinaldi Winery in 1870. This winery was also connected to the Barale family and was called "Barale & Rinaldi" for at least part of this time. I am still trying to work out this part.
Here is a bottle from the Barale & Rinaldi Winery. I took these photos at the G. Rinaldi Winery in 2016.

A bottle like this was mostly likely made for family consumption as most of the grapes produced before World War I period were sold to the few large producers like Marchesa Falletti.
In 1918, the Barale & Rinaldi Winery was split into three wineries that remain to this day:
- Giuseppe Rinaldi (grandfather of Beppe) established his own winery with the vineyards that the winery owns to this day (in Brunate, Le Coste, Cannubi San Lorenzo, and Ravera).
- His cousin Francesco Rinaldi established the Francesco Rinaldi Winery, which is also quite traditionally run to this day under Luciano Rinaldi, a second or third cousin of Beppe Rinaldi.
- The third winery is Barale Fratelli, which was run by Carlo Barale's oldest son, Battista. Battista never married. Carlo's youngest son Francesco was an officer in the Italian army who died in World War II. Carlo's middle son Giuseppe worked in Brazil from 1928 to 1946. When he returned to Barolo, he married Margherita Costamagna and they had two sons, Sergio and Carlo. Carlo was a very talented enologist who died way too young in 1985. His brother Sergio Barale runs the winery today along with his daughters Eleonora and Gloria.
Giuseppe's son Battista Rinaldi was born in 1918. He was the first resident of Barolo to graduate from the Scuola Enologica di Alba. He began making wine in the family winery in 1944. He took over the winery full-time after his father Giuseppe died in 1947. Battista Rinaldi was also the mayor of Barolo from 1970 to 1975. Among his accomplishments as mayor was the acquisition of the Castello di Barolo, which was first used as the town Enoteca, and later as the Enoteca Regionale del Barolo. Battista was also the first president of the Enoteca.
Battista's son Giuseppe, more commonly known as Beppe, was born on September 17, 1948. He already had an established career as a veterinarian (working mostly with cows and other large animals) when Battista became ill in 1988. As Battista became more ill, Beppe began helping his father more and more in the winery. When Battista passed away in 1992, Beppe cut his veterinary practice substanitally in order to run the winery full-time.

Sadly, Beppe Rinaldi passed away on September 2, 2018, just short of his 70th birthday. You can find photos of Beppe that I took in 2011 at La Festa del Barolo Recent Release Tasting and at the La Festa del Barolo Gala Dinner, where my friends and I sat with Beppe. And here are more recent photos from my 2016 visit to the winery.
Beppe Rinaldi was known to his friends as Citrico (pronounced CHEE-tree-koh according to Jeremy Parzen), i.e. the citric one. One theory is that he got this name for his tart (acerbic) personality. A second theory is that it is due to his (formerly) lemon-blond hair. A third theory, reported by Levi Dalton, is that he got this nickname when a much younger Beppe stepped up to the chalkboard in full view of the enology class and completed a chemical equation on the board with many several boatloads too much of citric acid. A name that recalls a simple mistake, but one that has stuck to a personality some might describe as tart.
Here is a lovely statement by Angelo Gaja about his friend Beppe Rinaldi and the nickname Citrico published a few days after Beppe's passing. Here is a translation of this article I developed with the help of Google Translate and a friend.

Around 2007, Beppe's daughter Marta Rinaldi (b. 1985) joined him in the winery after getting her degree in enology from the institute in Alba. According to Antonio Galloni, she is the primary winemaker beginning with the 2010 vintage.
Beppe's younger daughter Carlotta Rinaldi (b. 1988) joined her sister and father in the winery after working in the wine business in New Zealand. She has a degree in agronomy. She described herself as "a vineyard geek" at the tasting of 2013 Barolo at the 2018 La Festa del Barolo.
Here is a blog post by Levi Dalton with many photos of the winery and vineyards.
And here is a report from my 2016 visit to G. Rinaldi with many photos of the winery, bottles, and peoplle.

Vineyards and Wines

Rinaldi owns 6.1 hectares (15 acres) with 3.8 hectares (9.4 acres) planted to nebbiolo for Barolo.
The Barolo plots are in the vineyards of Brunate, Le Coste, Cannubi San Lorenzo, and Ravera, all in the commune of Barolo.
- Ravera is a large vineyard which is mostly in Novello and partly in Barolo. However, Rinaldi's plot is in the Barolo part of Ravera.
- Similarly, Brunate lies in both Barolo and in La Morra, but Rinaldi's plot is in Barolo.
From 1970 until 1990, Battista Rinaldi kept the wine from Brunate separate from the others. In good vintages, he would produce a single-vineyard Brunate or Brunate Riserva, while blending the remaining wine into his base Barolo. However, it was often the case that Battista would blend anywhere from 15-25% of Le Coste into this to make what he felt was a more balanced wine.
Starting with the 1993 vintage, Beppe Rinaldi began blending more of the Le Coste into the Brunate to produce about 10,000 bottles of a wine labeled Brunate - Le Coste. Typically, this wine was about 60-75% Brunate and 25-40% Le Coste. He also blended the Cannubi San Lorenzo and the Ravera to produce a second cuvee of about 3,500 bottles called Cannubi San Lorenzo - Ravera. Beppe felt these blends made more balanced wines.

For this second wine, the labels of the 1993 and 1994, say "S. Lorenzo" and not "Cannubi San Lorenzo" as they do in 1995 – 2009. In fact, Ravera is listed first on these two, so they should properly be called "Ravera - San Lorenzo". This is also true because Ravera was typically more than half of this blend. Since the wine did not change, we still refer to these as "Cannubi San Lorenzo - Ravera". [Note: San Lorenzo is part of the Cannubi hillside.]

Begining with the 2010 vintage, wineries are no longer able to use multiple vineyard names on a Barolo label. Thus, Brunate - Le Coste and Cannubi San Lorenzo - Ravera are no longer legal on labels. With this new law, they could have choosen to make single-vineyard wines or to make up so-call fantasy names for their wines (like Gaja's Sperss or Sandrone's Le Vigne).
As it turned out, starting with the 2010 vintage, they are bottling:
- A wine labeled Brunate is bottled with a maximum of 15% of Le Coste juice, because that is the maximum the new law allows and still have the wine labeled Brunate.
- A blended Barolo containing the remaining Le Coste, the Cannubi San Lorenzo, and the Ravera. This wine is named Tre Tine which means three vats. It is typically about 60% Ravera, 35% Cannubi San Lorenzo, and 5% Le Coste.
- Here is a photo of the two wines together in the 2010 vintage.

Label Designs

I only have photos of 3 vintages of pre-1950 Barolo. All 3 of these were photos taken in the winery, so I am confident they are real. All 3 have a label somewhat similar to the current label: 1921, 1927, 1945.
Starting in the late 1940s or early 1950s through 1969, they used this orange-bordered main label with either a hand-stamped vintage on the main label or (especially in later vintages) a vintage neck label.
In 1968, and throughout the 1970s and 80s, they used the main label with the lyre in the upper left and a vintage neck label.
Then in 1989 and the early 1990's came the main label with the lyre in the top center and the vintage on the main label.
The current label started with the 1995 and a vintage neck label.
For a long time, there has also been the stag beetle label, mostly on European releases and magnums. It typically has a hand-written vintage. The drawing on this label of a male stag beetle is by Gianni Gallo, who did the 1989 Vietti Villero Riserva label and various labels for Vietti and Vajra.
1989 was a transitional year since the wine was made by Battista Rinaldi, but released by his son Beppe. On that page you can see most of the designed mentioned.

Other Wines

Rinaldi made a Barbaresco in some vintages including 1953, 1955, 1956, 1960, 1961, 1965. I believe these were from purchased grapes.
Rinaldi also makes a Langhe Nebbiolo in many vintages.
The Fine Wine Geek also hopes to have a page on Rinaldi Barbera someday. He thinks G. Rinaldi Barbera is one of the best, but not much is made.

Top of this page

All original content © Ken Vastola