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The wine producing firm of Michele Chiarlo was founded in 1956 by the sole and present owners, Michele and Giuseppina Chiarlo. Son of over seven generations of esteemed wine growers, Mr. Chiarlo is today one of the most respected producers of the fine wines of Piedmont and a leading figure in its viticultural industry.
The present firm's foundation was built on the business of Mr. Chiarlo's father, then comprised of the estate's vineyards and family home, in Calamandrana, and the cellars and bottling facility, at nearby Susa. Since then its growth, focused on producing wines of the highest pedigree, has foreshadowed the continuing quest for quality on the part of so many of Italy's conscientious producers.
Michele Chiarlo is credited with being one of the first producers to introduce malolactic fermentation to Italy, thereby achieving wines of greater stability, lower acidity and easier accessibility in their youth.
Over the years, Michele Chiarlo has realized the success and recognition that constant pursuit of quality would bring. Between 1956 and 1968, distribution gradually expanded from Piedmont to the important markets of central and northern Italy, and, in 1967, the wines' reputation for quality opened the export markets of Germany, Belgium and Great Britain.
Michele Chiarlo directly manages or personally oversees every aspect in the production of his wines. Eminently qualified through the expertise acquired through his involvement with the company under his father, he also holds a degree from the prestigious School of Enology at Alba, from which he graduated in 1955. His ceaseless innovation, both in production and in marketing, has gained him the respesct of his industry. He is a counselor of long standing representing Piedmont in the Unione Italiana Vini; President of the Italian Union of Exporters of Wines; past President of the regional Consortium for Quality Control and Promotion supporting Barbera d'Asti, Barbera del Monferrato, and Grignolino del Monferrato; and in the mid-1980s assumed a founding position on the board of directors of the then newly-created Italian Wine and Food Institute, focused on the discriminating promotion of quality Italian wines and foodstuffs in the United States. Since the early 1990s, Michele Chiarlo's sons, Alberto and Stefano, have entered the firm in positions which will lead to their eventually assuming full responsibility. Alberto, the elder, directs marketing and sales; Stefano, an enologist by profession, manages vineyard operations and collaborates in production in the cellars.
