Italian wines Piemonte

Nebbiolo is the most noble grape variety of Piedmont and found, in the municipality of Barolo, a special uniqueness that sets it apart from the few areas outside, where the grapes of the vine fail to mature properly. It is indeed a rather rare case, one in which such an important variety from the point of view of quality has not been exported (except for some testing) in other regions or countries.


Nebbiolo in Barolo lives very different expressions, especially the character of tannins, depending on the municipality where it is produced. The most balanced and rich come from the homonymous municipality and from Monforte d'Alba, the most refined and elegant from La Morra, while the pure austerity mainly involves Castiglione Falletto and Serralunga d'Alba. Not less important are the cousins ​​of Barbaresco, another wine of great structure and character that in some vineyards may confront the king of wines: the vineyards of Rabaja, Asili, Gallina e Montestefano, for example. Space deserves also a small area appreciated only in recent times, Roero, which includes some labels of considerable interest at much more affordable prices. A small speech of exception must be made for the "Nebbiolos of the cold", in ancient times among the most planted with vines areas in Italy that was not able to overcome the ravages of phylloxera. Countries such as Boca, Fara, Sizzano, Lessona and Ghemme fully represent this reality.


They are important denominations as, with the warming of the climate, retain a freshness in the wines obtained which today can be considered a trump card for the taste of modern consumers.

In the province of Asti, Barbera reigns instead, a rich and generous variety, always of good freshness, which in this area shows a particularly clean dorsal, almost chalky, of refined elegance.

A brief citation is needed also for the Dolcetto that in Dogliani and in Ovada has found the perfect habitat for the variety. Timorasso, instead, is a recently enhanced variety that in the Tortona hills area has demonstrated great finesse and longevity among the "cultivar" of white grapes. The area of Gavi and that of Caluso remain famous for white wines from Cortese and Erbaluce grapes.


The wine history of Piedmont begins around the sixth century BC, when the Ligurians decide that the imported wine from Greece have to be accompanied by an on-site wine production. With the Roman rule the cultivation of the vine becomes a fundamental activity, and laws were enacted for the protection of vineyards with painful punishments for those who damaged grapes. The production remains thriving until the arrival, between the Nineteenth and the Twentieth centuries, of the parasitic diseases of the vine and the world wars that led to an abandonment of the countryside. After World War II all the qualities of a heritage of grapes unique in the world begins to emerge, and wineries that would make the history of Italian wine in the next fifty years are founded and consolidated.