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Barolo: brief history outline
The first thing that one notices about Barolo is that the town is situated differently than the other nearby towns, which perch on hilltops or stretch along ridges. Barolo, though, closes a small valley; it poses on a kind of spur-shaped plateau, standing out from the slopes that surround it like an amphitheatre.
 There is no clear surviving evidence about the beginnings of Barolo. In pre-historic and later eras, the area was certainly inhabited by Celtic-Ligurian tribes, subdued later by the Romans, as well as by the Romans themselves, but it seems that the first real settlements here took place in the late Middle Ages. Among the many suggested etymologies of the name Barolo, the most likely seems to be the Celtic bas reul, or low-lying place. In 1200, the village is listed in the "Rigestum Comunis Albe" as Villa Barogly, and again in 1600 under the two names Barrolo and Barollo.
During the Lombard ascendancy, Barolo was under the Gastaldo of Diano; under Charlemagne, it became part of the Contea of (the Conti, or Counts of) Alba and then of the Marca (March) of Turin. Nearly a century of Saracen raids occurred at that time, and Berengarius I consequently permitted the building of a fortress, the original nucleus of the present castello. In the year 1250, a powerful banking family, the Falletti, acquired from the commune of Alba all the territory of Barolo, but the preceding period witnessed a continuous series of owners: (more or less peaceful) acquisition of lands and their later parcelling-out was pretty much the order of the day in those years. The last pre-Falletti ownership change was in 1233, when the commune of Alba assumed control again of the Barolo area.
The arrival of the Falletti put an end to these changes. An example of the emerging non-noble middle classes, they controlled the fate of Barolo and surrounding areas for several centuries, thanks to the economic power that enabled them, in the years around 1300, to gain control over some 50 Piedmontese landholdings. In 1486, Barolo became part of the Stato Monferrino (of Monferrato), then passing to the House of Savoy under the treaty of Cherasco, signed by Duke Vittorio Amedeo I. In the meantime, Barolo suffered many calamitous invasions during the numerous wars for European hegemony, the most ruinous at the hands of the French in their struggle with the Spanish. Before 1600, it had become a Contea; in 1730, it became a Marchesato, with Gerolamo IV as its first marchese; a talented military leader with many exploits to his credit, he was nominated in 1731 viceroy and Capitano Generale of Sardinia.
Leaving aside for the moment the thread of the Falletti saga, let us draw attention to several historical references to Barolo viticulture. Barolo and the surrounding areas have, in fact, a well-documented viticultural history, with venerable manuscripts containing "statuti" referring to the town of Barolo. A proclamation of 1674, for example, threatened severe penalties against whomsoever should damage vines or steal grapes, whether man or animal. The initial date of harvest was also a subject of solemn decrees, with extremely heavy penalties for scofflaws.
Returning to the Falletti, Gerolamo IV's good fortune in military events did not carry over to family matters. In 1695 he married Elena Matilde Provana di Druent, only daughter of Monssù Druent, described in contemporary accounts not only as haughty and capricious but also caught up in dark court intrigues. His character showed itself quickly: in 1700, when his daughter had been married but five years, he shut her up, on some whim, in the Palazzo Druent in Turin and forbade her to see her own husband. Severed from Gerolamo and the three children born during their happy marriage, she took her life a few days later. Later, upon the death of her father, last of the line, Gerolamo IV inherited his wealth and his palace, which is known today as Palazzo Barolo.
Only two other marchesi followed Gerolamo IV. Ottavio Alessandro Falletti was a man of lively intelligence dedicated more to his studies rather than to his military or political career. Carlo Tancredi, too, was a man of studies, but his true field was philanthropy, in which he was in perfect synchrony with his French wife, Juliette Colbert, granddaughter of the famous minister of the Sun King. A Consigliere di Stato, he was a very able administrator as well and was twice named mayor of Turin, where he put into practice policies benefiting the disadvantaged that were far ahead of his time. His generosity caused his premature death, for it exposed him to the 1835 cholera epidemic; he did survive it, but he never completely recovered and died three years later. The last chapter of the Falletti family history thus concerns the last Marchesa Falletti, Juliette Colbert, and it is she who wrote an important chapter in the history of Barolo wine.
She was a well-educated woman of broad culture, even though she liked referring to herself as a politically reactionary "vandeana" (from Vendée), and quickly won a reputation for her brilliance and clear thinking, with a dash of impulsiveness that involved her in more than one controversy but which led her above all to undertake efforts to help the poor, activities therefore looked upon "with disfavour" by the establishment. Overall, Colbert exerted fifty year's of influence on the intellectual and political culture, besides being a women of action ...and bringing innovation to winemaking. Before her death in 1864, she had already stipulated that her works of benefaction should continue in the Opera Pia Barolo, to which she left her entire family inheritance.
But the history continues. From that time, Barolo suffered ups and downs, as did its viticulture. As elsewhere, the farming culture paid heavy dues, with hard conditions, to which phylloxera contributed its share, forcing farmers to abandon family lands and emigrate. The first few years following the Second World War, movingly described by Beppe Fenoglio in Malora, were scarcely less hard. A new period then began, that lasted into the 1960s, an exodus into the cities, in search of more stable jobs and wider horizons; this led to further abandonment of the countryside, although less severe in this area than in the Alta Langa and in other areas of Piedmont. Recent years are seeing the reverse: young people are deliberately deciding to be grapegrowers, largely influenced by the nearby Scuola Enologica di Alba, and those a bit older are returning to the vineyards, all of this brought about by renewed interest in wine and in the improved income it can bring.
Today, Barolo is a wine town in the strictest sense: the scent of wine can be sensed at every street corner. Nor is Barolo wine like other wines, for it has transformed its town into a kind of "sacred place," which the pagan wine cult's adepts must honour, from time to time, "in pilgrimage." This vinous augury has for some time now been translated into concrete results, leading to a gradual increase in tourism and consequent local economic benefits. Not that this has changed the locals' tranquil character or their rhythm of life. Do not be surprised, then, if Barolo is different from other towns suddenly become famous for their wine. Its inhabitants remain level-headed and courteous, and you can come face to face with these qualities in the local bakery or pharmacist's, where we willingly exercise patience while the person ahead of us keeps the shopkeeper up-to-date on the health of family members. Should you find yourself in that queue, do not be irked, do not be impatient: fall, rather, into the "rhythm of the place," gentle as the hills that watch over this magical town.
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