La Cantina · La Cripta
Nine metres below the chapter house, the monks cut a crypt into the tufo. It has held its twelve degrees and a half through every summer since 1642. We keep the wine there now — and the last hour of every dinner.
Guests who wish to descend do so before dinner, or between the eleventh and twelfth toll with Pietro, by candle. The stair is 1642; the handrail is new; the silence is original. Ask when you reserve — six guests an evening, no more.
12,5 °C the year round, measured nightly since the restoration. The crypt has never needed a machine.
The cellar is built as a walk through Piemonte first — Barolo and Barbaresco in verticals that reach back past the war — then outward: the Rône in old bottles, Riesling of the Mosel and the Rheingau, Champagne of growers, a wall of vin jaune. The list is written by hand and carried to the table on request; nothing is laminated in this house.
Metodo classico di casa
Alta Langa DOCG pas dosé, from a north-facing parcel below the fog line: sixty months on the lees in the coolest bay of the crypt, under the bell tower’s foundations. It opens every dinner and closes every vintage — the house pour, never sold away.
Progetto Cripta
Six clay amphorae stand where the monks kept oil. Nebbiolo rests in them a winter at a time — unhurried, unfined, drawn straight for the Cripta pairing when it is ready and not before.
Il carrello
Seven herbs of the cloister — sage, rosemary, chamomile, elder, bay, hyssop, wormwood — steeped into a moscato base and finished in the crypt. It crosses the room on the cart before dessert, poured over one clear cube, with a leaf of sage.
Le verticali
| Cellar | Reaches back to | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Barolo | 1947 | the deepest wall of the crypt |
| Barbaresco | 1958 | including every year of the restoration |
| Alta Langa di casa | 2016 | each vintage of the Riserva del Campanile |
| Vin jaune | 1979 | for the eleventh toll, the cheese cart |
“Il vino giusto non accompagna il piatto — accompagna l’ora.”
The right wine does not follow the dish; it follows the hour.