Memory of Massimo Camìa

Luciano had an aura of humanity and concreteness that astonished you

Massimo Camìa is a Langa man from Monforte d'Alba born in Dogliani in mid-September 1960. In his professional journey the kitchen has always been his "fixation". So, in the mid-Seventies he attended the Hotel School in Ceres, in the Valli di Lanzo. From school to work was a short step: nine seasons in the mountains, three years at the historic Ristorante Muscatel in Cinzano di Santa Vittoria d'Alba and then he opened his own establishment in Mondovì. In 1990 he arrived in Barolo to open Borgo Antico and here he met Luciano Sandrone and earned his Michelin Star in 2001, a recognition he maintained in subsequent establishments too. In mid-May 2025 he opened "Massimo Camìa", a restaurant with rooms, in Novello, still in the Barolo zone.

"I met Luciano in 1990, arriving in Barolo to open my Borgo Antico. Fate decreed that he would be the first person I met in Barolo". Thus Massimo Camìa begins during our meeting. He is like a river in flood. Memories resurface in a rush, one after another.
"Our relationship was immediately straightforward. We actually shared a cellar in the heart of Barolo. He stored some wines there, I kept wines and cured meats. In those years Luciano had had great success with Barolo 1987 and was beginning to make his name as a prestigious producer. I remember him zipping around on that motorino of his through the streets of Barolo and I can still almost hear his greeting of that time: Ciao, Borgo Antico".
And what was he like in character?
"I have a very beautiful memory of him: he was a great worker, a man of integrity, for him 2 + 2 always made 4. And I remember his smile, that kind eye of his. I liked talking with him because he always had a solution to suggest for problems. You could ask Luciano for advice on anything and he always had the right answer".
Particular memories?
"Many. Here is one for you. It was the year of the floods in our area, in November 1994. After a few weeks, together with him and other producers we organised an evening of food and wine at a delicatessen in Munich. Great wines and quality dishes, but above all 4 kilos of white Alba truffle. Only 40 diners, practically one hundred grams of truffle each. A spectacle!!!".
And how was he as a producer?
"Unique and special. He never followed fashion. He always remained above the fray. He had an aura of humanity and concreteness that astonished you. And his wines were always consistent: never a vintage over the top. He was consistency in person. Only a man like him could one fine day have the strength to relinquish on the label the Cannubi Boschis Mention in order to dedicate that Barolo with Aleste to his two grandchildren, Alessia and Stefano. Therefore, when I learned of his illness, I saw it as an injustice towards a good and positive man. And when he left it was as though a part of me had disappeared".
Was there a wine of his that impressed you most?
"I would return to Barolo 1987, an important wine, but of great drinkability. But all his wines always distinguished themselves for elegance despite their structure. All his wines always impressed me for their ability to be drunk with pleasure".
A final thought?
"More than a thought, mine is a tribute with great gratitude to a man who, starting from nothing, built an important productive reality, an extraordinary tile in the wine mosaic of this splendid Langa land to which Luciano was strenuously bound".