Cornarea’s Roero Arneis story begins in 1974–75, when Giampiero Bovone and his wife Francesca Rapetti bought the historic Cornarea hill above Canale in Roero with one audacious goal: to re‑plant Arneis at scale on a site where it had almost vanished. At that time, Arneis survived only as scattered rows among Nebbiolo and Barbera, its reputation scarred by difficult fermentations and the lack of modern temperature‑control; Cornarea went the other way and planted roughly 12 hectares of Arneis between 1975 and 1978 on the best‑exposed slopes, launching their first wines in 1981 and proving that Arneis could be a serious, dry, terroir‑expressive white.

Over the following decades, the Bovone/Rapetti family—now represented by Pier and Francesca and their son Gian Nicola—built Cornarea into a benchmark Roero estate where Arneis is the flagship and Nebbiolo the supporting actor, all from one contiguous, old‑vine hill rich in Miocene marine deposits and magnesium. Cornarea is explicitly credited in Roero’s own materials and in independent profiles as the first winery to invest seriously in saving Arneis when it was on the brink of extinction; their 12 hectares of Arneis were described as “the first real effort to recover this ancient vine,” and the success of Cornarea’s dry Roero Arneis encouraged other producers to follow suit, ultimately helping lead the grape from near‑disappearance in the early 1970s to DOC status, then Roero Arneis DOC, and finally DOCG recognition in 2005.

Why You’ll Love It

• It’s a true “rescued” native: a dry, aromatic white from an indigenous Roero grape that this family helped pull back from near extinction, giving you history and heritage in the glass, not just flavor.

• The Cornarea hill’s old vines and magnesium‑rich former seabed soils deliver unusual texture and minerality for a Piedmont white—think generous fruit and florals wrapped around a long, salty, almond‑tinged finish.

• You get the best of both worlds stylistically: modern, reductive, temperature‑controlled winemaking to preserve fruit and freshness, combined with low‑yield, hand‑harvested old vines that add depth, phenolic grip and age‑worthiness.

How To Serve It

• Serve chilled but not ice‑cold—around 50–54°F—so the exotic fruit, white flowers and bitter‑almond/herbal nuances can emerge without the palate feeling muted.

• Pair it with texture and nuance rather than sheer richness: crudo or lightly cured fish, shellfish, herbed chicken, and dishes with fennel, hazelnut, or alpine cheeses all echo the wine’s savory, mineral and nutty register.

• Pour it in medium‑sized or all purpose white wine stems and don’t be afraid to revisit the bottle over several hours or even the next day; Cornarea’s Arneis has the structure and oxygen resilience to open up with time rather than collapsing quickly.