Monforte d'Alba
Monforte d'Alba is a municipality (comune) in the Langhe, in the Province of Cuneo, known for the production of Barolo wine. In September 2026 a gang of four people stole over three thousand bottles of Barolo, worth hundreds of thousands of euros, from the town's Conterno e Fantino winery.12
Foundations and cultural life
The town is home to the Bottari Lattes Foundation, created in 2009 by Caterina Bottari Lattes in memory of her husband Mario Lattes — publisher, painter and writer — and devoted to promoting the arts and reading.[3] On 7 October 2026, at the Monforte premises, the board named Elena Bottari as president; already a member and board councillor, she took over after the death of the founder at Verduno on 2 August of the same year.[4][3] The board also includes Mariarosa Masoero, Vittorio Artom Celli, Sergio Artico and Ada Malan.[4]
Attached to the foundation is the Premio Lattes Grinzane, awarded to the best fiction of the year and open to Italian and foreign authors; since 2017 it has been part of the cultural calendar of the Alba International White Truffle Fair, the season of the trìfola (the truffle). The sixteenth edition closed on 17 October 2026 at the Teatro Sociale Busca in Alba with a lecture by the Indian writer Amitav Ghosh, the year's special prize.[3]
In November 2026 a second cultural institution was founded at Monforte, the Vezza Foundation, set up by Sandra and Charley Vezza and directed by Flavio Del Monte: it brings together contemporary art, nature and landscape and takes shape on the San Pietro hill, among the vineyards and a wood left in its natural state, where the ruins survive of the monastery of San Pietro, first recorded in 1014.[5] The plan is to invite one or more artists each year, so that over about ten years the works trace a changing route across the hill.[5]
Timeline
- — A gang of four people steals over three thousand bottles of Barolo, worth hundreds of thousands of euros, from the Conterno e Fantino winery in Monforte d'Alba. → CronacaQui Torino la Repubblica Torino
Related articles: Conterno e Fantino, Elena Bottari becomes new president of the Fondazione Bottari Lattes, Fondazione Vezza, Theft of Over Three Thousand Bottles of Barolo from the Conterno e Fantino Winery in Monforte d'Alba (September 2026)
Sources
- Colpo da centinaia di migliaia di euro nelle Langhe: maxi furto di Barolo nella notte, sottratte tremila bottiglie — CronacaQui Torino
- Maxifurto alla cantina “Conterno e Fantino" di Monforte d’Alba, rubate tremila bottiglie di Barolo — la Repubblica Torino
- «Premio Lattes Grinzane»: XVI edizione — Il Torinese, 13 October 2026
- Elena Bottari nuova presidente della Fondazione Bottari Lattes — ANSA Piemonte, 7 October 2026
- Nasce nelle Langhe la Fondazione Vezza dedicata all'arte contemporanea — ANSA Piemonte, 5 November 2026