Cortese Bricco Bartolomeo 2024, La Colombera

La Colombera’s 2024 Cortese Bricco Bartolomeo comes from the Colli Tortonesi DOC, in southeastern Piemonte near Tortona. Made from 100% estate-grown Cortese, this wine is fermented with indigenous yeasts in stainless steel and aged on fine lees for added texture.

The result is bright, dry, and beautifully balanced, with notes of lemon, green apple, nectarine, apricot, white flowers, and a subtle mineral finish. It has the freshness you want from Cortese, but enough mid-palate weight to make it more than just a quick aperitif. Pair it with seafood, pesto pasta, grilled chicken, fresh cheeses, antipasti, or vegetable-forward dishes. A crisp, charming, quietly serious white from one of Piemonte’s most interesting overlooked corners.

About the Winery

In the rolling hills outside Tortona, in southeastern Piemonte, La Colombera is doing the quiet, important work of keeping local wine culture alive. The estate is run by the Semino family, whose roots on this land go back generations, beginning with a mixed farm of wheat, chickpeas, and alfalfa before vineyards became the main focus.

Today, Piercarlo Semino works alongside his children Elisa and Lorenzo, farming estate vineyards in the Colli Tortonesi, a region better known to wine insiders than casual drinkers—which is exactly the kind of place we like to poke around. Tortona sits in the province of Alessandria, not far from the Ligurian border, where limestone-rich clay soils, rolling exposures, and cool night air help produce whites with freshness, texture, and mineral drive.

La Colombera is especially known for its role in the revival of Timorasso, the once nearly forgotten native white grape now considered one of Piemonte’s great white wines. But the family also farms Cortese, Barbera, Croatina, Nibiò, and other local varieties, giving a broader view of what the Colli Tortonesi can do.

Their approach is practical and land-focused: no herbicides, vineyard work done with care, and a cellar philosophy that favors clarity over flash. Bricco Bartolomeo shows that beautifully. Made from Cortese grown on the Colombera hill, it is crisp, dry, gently floral, and quietly textural—a reminder that Piemonte’s white wines have far more to offer than “the thing you drink before Barolo.”