^^ hygiene standards in the winery have been raised, particularly in France, and that can cost a lot of money.
I guess the options now are either stay small or get big, probably not easy to be medium sized unless you have a big name.
Wine is a global business now.
I once travelled through Burgundy with a Californian winemaker who couldn't contain his excitement about what he referred to as 'dirty winemaking'. He loved it. I wish I could remember who it was. It might have been Jim Clendenen, but I'm drawing a blank. There's still, thankfully, plenty of 'dirty winemaking' in France and elsewhere, though I think I'll be pushed to see another Raymond Trollat, with his black, mouldy
cave beneath a tin shed on the top of a hill above St.Joseph, and the clear, bright ruby liquid that he drew from his ancient barrels.
Then again, we have the 'natural wine' brigade, who apparently positively revel in making wine that's so dirty that it actually tastes of cider rather than wine due to the bacteria gleefully partying in the bottle.
The real issue is between cleanliness and theatre. In the case of Barolo, as with Bordeaux, there's an expectation of the latter. It might well be to do with the extensive American clientele that they both enjoy.
The first time I went to Barolo, in (I think, 88 or 89) we visited a brilliant young grower called Claudio Alario. He was still mixed farming, and he was out somewhere on his tractor when we got there, so his mother locked us in a shed full of beef cattle until he got back. When we were released we went down to his little cave at the back of the house. It was full of ancient chestnut
botte, with just a single, small stainless steel fermentation vessel in the corner, the digital temperature reading silently winking. The floor was earth and concrete. I was standing by the door and a few chickens wandered past. I caught one of them, and his delighted mother motioned me, with a twist of her wrist, to wring its neck! As politely as I could, I declined.
Even Alario now has a fairly fabulous cuverie, with a fine barrel cellar beneath it, where the old
cave used to be. And the cows and the chickens are long gone.