Susan Hulme MW, Vincenzo Arnese and Sara Bachiorri tasted 95 wines with 1 Outstanding and 35 Highly recommended.

Piedmont Dolcetto: Panel tasting scores

95 wines tasted

Exceptional 0

Outstanding 1

Highly recommended 35

Recommended 57

Commended 2

Fair 0

Poor 0

Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit their currently available vintages of Piedmont Dolcetto red wines, with no price restrictions, from DOCs Dolcetto d’Alba, Dolcetto d’Asti, Dolcetto d’Acqui, Dolcetto di Ovada, or DOCGs Dolcetto di Diano d’Alba/Diano d’Alba, Dolcetto di Ovada Superiore or Dogliani

Dolcetto is the third-most important red grape variety in Piedmont, after Nebbiolo and Barbera. Although most closely associated with Piedmont, it is also grown in Lombardy, Liguria and the island of Sardinia, though often under other names (Ormeasco, Nibiò etc). It’s an early-ripening variety – two to three weeks before Nebbiolo – and produces deeply coloured, dry red wines with plenty of gentle tannins and lowish acidity, which emphasise the sweetness of fruit and perhaps explains the meaning of its name: ‘little sweet one’.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores from the Dolcetto panel tasting

Dolcetto wines are well suited to modern tastes: typically they are unoaked, medium- bodied, soft, round and fruity, with flavours and aromas of blackberry, black cherry and black pepper or spice notes. This drinkability makes Dolcetto a much-loved variety among the Piemontesi, whereas the Nebbiolo wines of Barolo and Barbaresco are considered more serious and demanding with much higher levels of tannins and acidity.

In Piedmont, the DOCGs where Dolcetto is the sole or principal variety include Dolcetto Diano d’Alba, Dolcetto Diano d’Alba Superiore, Dolcetto di Ovada Superiore, Dogliani and Dogliani Superiore, along with the DOCs Dolcetto d’Alba – which usually produces the most wine – Dolcetto d’Alba Superiore, Dolcetto di Ovada, Dolcetto d’Asti, Dolcetto d’Acqui and Langhe Dolcetto. All of these denominations, with the exception of the small-production Dolcetto d’Asti, were represented in this panel tasting, and all 95 wines were 100% Dolcetto.

Dogliani is one of the most historically significant areas for Dolcetto; indeed, some people claim that the variety originated from the hills in this area, and it was promoted to a DOCG in 2005. The judges were therefore expecting great things from the Dogliani wines in this panel tasting, but while the Dogliani wines did quite well, the Dogliani Superiore wines tasted were disappointing: three of the five entered scored 86 points or below; the wines either already looked too evolved at three or four years old, or there was too much oak for the level of fruit. In fact, the panel typically rewarded wines that were unoaked, or where the oak was very subtle. Sara Bachiorri commented that she ‘loved the young Dolcetto that didn’t try to be something else; naked, pure, crunchy and honest’. Vincenzo Arnese added that Dolcetto ‘is the kind of wine that to perform well doesn’t need. . . oak and can express typicity very well’.

Overall, there were few poor wines. ‘It was a very consistent tasting with good base quality of wines,’ noted Arnese. Almost all the wines tasted – 93 out of 95 – achieved a ‘Bronze medal’ level (86-89pts, Recommended) or higher, with 35 achieving the equivalent of a ‘Silver’ (90-94pts, Highly recommended) and one ‘Gold’. Indeed, 26 of the 57 Recommended wines scored 89pts, which is on the verge of being a Highly recommended/Silver.

See all the Dolcetto wines from the panel tasting

Bachiorri noted after the tasting that ‘Dolcetto is certainly an underrated grape variety that can give great pleasure and joy.’ Dolcetto is without doubt very well suited to today’s taste for lively, fresh wines. Most are best drunk young, either on their own or with food. This tasting confirmed that Dolcetto can offer plenty of enjoyment and value for money, if you choose wisely.

Dolcetto panel tasting scores

The judges

Susan Hulme MW is a wine writer, editor, educator and presenter specialising in Italy. She runs her own wine training and consultancy company Vintuition and travels regularly to wine regions around Italy. Now focusing more on her writing, she is Italian editor for The Wine Independent.

Vincenzo Arnese is director of wine at Raffles London at the OWO. Born in Naples, he worked at top hotels in Italy, Switzerland and Australia, and later at Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester. A DWWA judge, in 2022 he won the coveted title of Taittinger UK Sommelier of the Year.

Sara Bachiorri is in the buying team at merchant WoodWinters. A DWWA judge, she was formerly head sommelier at The Glasshouse in Kew then Chez Bruce in London, followed by a stint at Italian specialist merchant FortyFive10°.

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From Riverland Fiano to McLaren Vale Aglianico, growing numbers of Australian winemakers are experimenting with Italian grape varieties and our expert team has picked out 15 favourites - mostly from the recent Australia Day tastings in London.

Those in-the-know will be aware of Australian winemakers’ experiments with Italian grape varieties over the last several years.

More recently, growing numbers of wines are becoming available – some only at the ‘cellar door’, but others are finding their way overseas – as shown by the tasting lists at the Australia Day tasting organised by Wine Australia in London in January.

Some of the trials started with climate change in mind, but several winemakers have also long held the view that certain Australian climates – Riverland, for example – were already a good natural fit for the sun-loving varieties of southern Italy, in particular.

Some winemakers also have ancestral links to Italian regions.

Below, you’ll see examples of how McLaren Vale and Riverland have been explored as a base for varieties from the south of Italy’s ‘boot’, such as Fiano, Aglianico and Nero d’Avola.

Adelaide Hills and Clare and King valleys have emerged as front-runners for varieties found in central and northern Italy, such as Sangiovese, Montepulciano and Nebbiolo, although it is still early days and so difficult to generalise.

Below, Decanter’s tasting team pick out 15 Italian-inspired highlights that are worth tracking down in 2018. Due to the small quantities, availability may be patchy, so if you come across any of these, snap them up.

Copy and editing by Chris Mercer and Jim Button. Tasting notes below by Tina Gellie, Amy Wislocki and Jim Button. 

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‘It’s the perfect wine to sip when you’re tired, at the end of a long day,’ said Ian D’Agata of Piedmont’s Dolcetto. ‘It’s perfumed, graceful, fruity and friendly – a great everyday table wine which goes with everything: pizza, pasta, barbecued meat. It’s never going to be hugely complex, that that’s not its role – you wouldn’t ask that of a village Burgundy either.’

His fellow tasters agreed, enthusing over the appeal and versatility of Dolcetto, and advising that it’s a wine to drink young and fresh. ‘They’re wines for fairly immediate consumption,’ said Michael Garner. ‘I like to drink them within a year or two,’ added D’Agata. Emily O’Hare said she would always go for the youngest vintage possible.

So what characterises Dolcetto d’Alba in particular? ‘Some people write that Alba Dolcettos are the best – that’s not really true,’ said D’Agata. ‘Certainly you’ll find more perfume in Dogliani. But Alba wines are typically the fleshiest and richest.’

Highly recommended Dolcetto d’Alba wines:

The tasters did comment on the use of oak, preferring the unoaked versions. ‘The oak was slightly distracting where present, and it’s nice to see how well the variety can do without it,’ said O’Hare. ‘The appeal of these wines is the freshness, the fruit quality and the immediacy,’ agreed Garner. D’Agata added: ‘Dolcetto will never be a blockbuster. Most wines are unoaked and usually those with oak are less successful as it’s easy to overwhelm the fruit. There are some good oaked examples, but they are a minority.’

Another attraction of the variety is the modest alcohol level of most wines, pointed out O’Hare. But at the same time they are structured wines and have highish tannins. So if you’re chilling the wines before serving, don’t overdo it, advised D’Agata.

‘Yes, it’s the perfect dinner party wine,’ added O’Hare. You can chill it, Beaujolais Nouveau-style, but it can also be smarter. Its structure means you can throw anything at it and it will handle it.’

Burgundy is so simple to understand when compared to the seemingly infinite hills of Barolo and Barbaresco in Piedmont, but help is at hand, writes Andrew Jefford in his latest Jefford on Monday column.

On and on they roll, the hills, one after another, combed to perfection, retreating grandly into the heat haze, frilled and filled out with copses of trees, threaded with pale tracks, and crowned with farmhouses and towers.

Those hills are soothing, but mocking too: ‘understand me if you can’, they seem to say. Generally, you can’t. If you’re on your own, indeed, you’re probably lost, and fumbling with a GPS.

Burgundy, by comparison with Barolo and Barbaresco, is so simple to understand: one slope. So is Napa: one valley, with a bottom and two sides. Even rangy Bordeaux isn’t difficult, despite its generally undramatic topography, but the majestically quilted Langhe in Piedmont is a grand puzzle. Is that why it now has some of the best vineyard mapping in the world?

Much of the credit for this must go to cartographer Alessandro Masnaghetti, whose recently published, bilingual Barolo MGA: The Barolo Great Vineyards Encyclopedia tackles in great detail the topography of the Menzioni Geografiche Aggiuntive, introduced by the local Consorzio after many years of consultation with local growers in 2010 (consult here for access to all of Masnaghetti’s work). The Consorzio also publishes maps of its own of the MGAs, produced for it by Masnaghetti, and these are downloadable here.

Menzioni Geografiche Aggiuntive or MGA is just a bureaucratically acceptable way of saying ‘vineyards’, so these maps are, if you like, the Barolo equivalent to those Burgundy maps most of us have been long familiar with, most handily accessible via the inexpensive paperback The Wines of Burgundy by Sylvain Pitiot and Jean-Charles Servant (published in Beaune by the Collection Pierre Poupon, but widely available).

With one major difference, of course: Burgundy has long had an official three-tier classification of vineyards, whereas the Barolo MGAs are ‘flat’, with no classificatory element. You could work out a classification of your own using market prices, and there is a local tradition of doing this, too. Renato Ratti’s historical classification in many ways remains the reference, but leading critic Antonio Galloni is working on his own usefully interactive version.

The fastidious elegance and scrupulousness which underlies Masnaghetti’s work perhaps explains his reluctance to launch into any sort of classification of his own; when you read his entries for each MGA, though, you will soon have a clear idea as how the locals esteem each site. And that’s probably enough for now.

Why? As I discovered back in May when I toured the region, the MGA system is far from universally acclaimed. The first objection is one that becomes obvious the moment you set eyes on the ‘official’ maps: some of the Barolo communes — like Monforte — decided to permit enormous tracts of hillside to claim one single name (like Bussia, Perno or Bricco San Pietro), while others, like Serralunga d’Alba, have a plenthora of more tightly circumscribed vineyards, like Francia, Falletto and Lazzarito.

It’s as if one region had embraced both the Burgundian and the Alsace definitions of Grand Cru simultaneously. In any case, as Roberto Voerzio points out, “the secret of Barolo is that everything changes every 20 metres”, so even the smaller circumscriptions will be a compromise.

Note that the vineyards aren’t all full of Nebbiolo vines, either. Their less propitious spots are full of Barbera or Dolcetto – or copses of the Tonda Gentile hazelnut trees coveted by the Alba’s Ferrero-Rocher factory. Masnaghetti’s maps show where the vineyard plantings actually are, which the official Consorzio maps don’t.

Another still more fundamental objection is that the very notion of selling an unblended Barolo is alien to the deepest traditions of the area. Five different vineyards were formerly mentioned on the label of the Bartolo Mascarello Barolo; with the 2010 vintage, that became illegal: it’s now one vineyard name or nothing. “The law,” says Bartolo’s daughter Maria Teresa, “now imposes the French practice of making wine from single parcels on us, whereas the tradition here was to put the parcels together. We have some Cannubi vineyards – but the sandy soils there suffer in hot years. Bottling that wine on its own wouldn’t be ideal. I don’t want to stop other growers having that option, but equally I would like the law to protect me, too, since I am the one using local methods and traditions, not an imported French practice.”

One option for those who wish to continue blending to a greater extent that the 15 per cent allowed by law is to settle for ‘Barolo’ alone – yet consumers may begin to regard this, in the MGA era, as a second-rank descriptor. Another is to come up with a fantasy name, though that might be regarded as trivialising. There is some leeway for names which can prove a 25-year antecedence, by the way. Aldo Conterno’s Gran Bussia (a blend of Romirasco with Colonnello and Cicala) is allowed thanks to its long market presence. Otherwise this deformation of an MGA name would be outlawed.

Romirasco, Colonnello and Cicala are subdivisions of the enormous ‘official’ Bussia (picked out and identified by Masnaghetti in his book), raising another point: the story is not over yet.

I called the MGAs ‘vineyards’ above, but they might better be identified as ‘sub-zones’ – since the word ‘Vigna’ (vineyard) and similar forms are allowed with the MGAs, provided they have been entered in the land register. So yes, there are a lot more names out there, with more still to come, some of them in effect monopoles of one particular producer, and others vineyards in common ownership. Masnaghetti makes a valiant attempt to corral these (together with the fantasy names) at the end of his book, but the struggle must have silvered his hair and his beard a little more completely than when he began the project.

If you’re new to Barolo, you might be throwing your arms in the air at this point and thinking ‘why bother?’ Why not just scoop up the top-scoring wines of Galloni or Monica Larner or other leading critics?

If your aim is simple pleasure, that’s fine. But if you want to begin (only begin) to understand why the wines taste as they do, and how terroir is configured in this unique and rare place on earth, then the MGA maps, limpidly coloured and contoured, are a great place to start. I would love to see every wine region in a world take them as a model for their own mapping. (And what a disgrace, by the way, that Masnaghetti’s project to map the whole of Bordeaux had to be abandoned thanks to lack of local co-operation, while his Tuscan projects have languished due to a lack of local interest.)

Read more Jefford on Monday columns:

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Jefford on Monday: The President and the Montravel Bomb

A few weeks ago, a friend from Hong Kong sent me the two ‘mind maps’ for grape varieties shown below.

Click both images in the lightbox to see the grape variety maps by JC Viens.

JC Viens is a wine educator and MW student, and he had developed these with winemaker and blogger Tersina Shieh. There are antecedents for this approach, notably in Michael Broadbent’s seminal Wine Tasting, and in Marnie Old’s very useful Wine: A Tasting Course. De Long’s ‘Wine Grape Varietal Table’ is a wall-chart graphic tackling grape variety profiles in ‘periodic table’ style from the wonderfully inventive Deborah and Steve De Long (www.delongwine.com).

And if you share JC Viens’ dream that the complexity of wine knowledge might be summarised in tabular or graphic form, then check out his own, dauntingly thorough attempts to do this via his ‘study guides’, freely available on his website Grande Passione using the following link: http://grandepassione.com/study-guides/. They are a remarkable achievement.

In the original mail, JC had asked if I thought any of the varieties had been wrongly positioned: he was training hard, and the idea was that these maps would help guide him and others through the challenges of blind tasting.

I found the maps seductive at first, and I began mentally adding a few more varieties – Picpoul and Bourboulenc somewhere under Pinot Blanc on the white map, for example; while on the red map Baga might nudge Mourvèdre, and Poulsard bob about well below Corvina. Shouldn’t Carignan go where Pinotage is, and Pinotage migrate towards Dolcetto and Zinfandel? By then, though, I was beginning to see serious problems.

Some stem from common misunderstandings. JC and Tersina have Shiraz towards the top of the tannic spectrum, for example – but assuming that ‘Shiraz’ principally means Australian Shiraz, this is far from true. Because of depth of colour and general opulence of flavour, tasters often assume that Australian Shiraz must be tannic – but it isn’t, because the Australian palate doesn’t like tannin much, and Australian winemakers and critics prefer fine, ‘powdery’ tannins (the consequence of what Penfold’s Peter Gago calls ‘tannin fining’) to the fatter, grippier, fiercer tannins more typical of long-macerated European reds.

Reputationally, Petit Verdot may well belong where JC has it and that might perhaps be justified in the best vats of Petit Verdot at Pichon-Lalande or Léoville-Poyferré after a hot summer, but every time I taste a named Petit Verdot varietal (from Australia’s Riverland, for example, or Argentina’s Mendoza, or from Quinta da Romaneira in the Douro valley) it is much less tannic than any Piedmontese Nebbiolo and most Xynomavro, too.

On the white map, Torrontés is surely not one of the wine world’s most acidic whites (bring on Assyrtico, huddled inside its Santorini baskets), and I’ve never yet come across a Furmint that would be more aromatic than a Muscat.

The key difficulty with mind maps of this sort is that the character of a variety overwhelmingly depends on two things: where it is grown, and what the ambitions are of the person who is making the wine. Viognier and Gewurztraminer, for example, do indeed tend to be aromatic, low-acid varieties when grown in Condrieu and Alsace, but when grown outside their European heartlands they can often be less aromatic and more acidic because winemakers and local drinkers want all white wines, regardless of starting variety, to be ‘crisp’ and ‘fresh’.

Much Garnacha is low in tannin – but the greatest French locations for Grenache are Châteauneuf, Gigondas and Roussillon, and the variety can be much more tannically prolific and texturally rich in those places than Australian Shiraz ever is. The tannins of Malbec, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon vary hugely depending on where they are grown, with anything serious from France’s Atlantic ambit (Bordeaux and Cahors) delivering a far chewier mouthful than anything grown in the Southern Hemisphere (with the possible exception of those Argentine Malbecs made by Bordelais winemakers). The key to spotting Pinot from Burgundy in a blind tasting compared to ambitious Pinot from, say, New Zealand is to look for tannic density.

Ditto for acid levels, with almost all Australian red wines having higher acid levels (again, contrary to popular belief) than serious wines made from similar varieties in Europe. Napa, by contrast, slugs it out in the low-acid vanguard with contemporary Bordeaux from ripe vintages like 2009. I recently blind tasted a set of ambitious Australian Cabernets against Napa equivalents. The results are almost unbelievably different, and that difference reflects winemaking ideals as much as — indeed probably more than — terroir.

Note, though, that I keep having to write ‘ambitious’ or ‘serious’. Inexpensive, high-yielding varietals grown in marginal climates make varietal character still more tenuous, though one would hope that such wines weren’t served in an exam context. There is a fashion for early-picking, too – and in many wines from early picked fruit you will taste the harvesting decision more clearly than the variety (since the articulation of varietal character only arrives with ripeness).

Pity the poor wine student, faced with complexity of this order. I still think mind maps are a useful aid, but I would recommend that every student starts with two blank sheets of A3 paper, and slowly fills each one up for themselves, based on their tasting experiences alone and with a total disregard for any kind of reputational aura. Don’t use the varietal name alone, but always varietal name plus location of origin (which also implies a winemaking culture). The same variety might then appear in five or six different places — but I think that the resulting map would be less likely to get you lost.

Read more Jefford on Monday columns.

Written by Andrew Jefford

It’s time for Piedmont’s ‘other’ great Nebbiolo wine to stop being seen as the perennial bridesmaid to Barolo, says Ian D’Agata. Barbaresco is just as good and (whisper it) in some cases better, especially when it comes to price...

What do you think is the best Italian wine of all time? Before you start guessing, let me tell you that it’s not a Barolo, a Brunello di Montalcino, an Amarone or a SuperTuscan. Stumped? It’s a Barbaresco. Yes, really. Italy’s best-ever wine is the now-legendary 1971 Santo Stefano Barbaresco Riserva Speciale made by Bruno Giacosa, widely acknowledged as the country’s ultimate expression of power, balance and refinement.

It is not, however, the only testament to the greatness that Barbaresco wine is capable of. In fact, Barbarescos have never been better, and there is a bevy of extremely fine producers to choose from: Angelo Gaja and Bruno Giacosa are the most famous, but wines by Albino Rocca, Bruno Rocca, Ca’ del Baio, Cigliuti, Cisa Asinari Marchesi di Gresy, Giuseppe Cortese, Moccagatta, Roagna and Sottimano rank with the world’s best. Also, Barbarescos are often the best wines made by well-known Piedmontese powerhouses such as Ceretto and Pio Cesare.

Unfortunately, the high quality of Barbaresco still slips under the radar of most wine lovers. Despite pocketfuls of devout admirers, the wines have always played underdog to nearby Barolo. It’s Barolo that has always garnered most of the attention, despite the fact that both wines are made essentially the same way, from the same Nebbiolo grape. The vineyards are just a short drive away from each other, but in completely separate wine-production areas: (you can’t make Barbaresco in the Barolo production area and vice-versa), and in a similar patchwork of geologically and topographically distinct sites beautiful enough to have merited UNESCO recognition in June last year.

Barbaresco 2015 & Riserva 2013: Latest releases

The background

Barbaresco became a DOC wine in 1966 and a DOCG in 1980. Generally speaking, Barbaresco wines are less austere, less tannic and are readier to drink sooner than Barolos. Most Barbarescos can be drunk as early as five years from the vintage. (Barolo, especially when from Monforte or Serralunga, usually requires a few years more to become fully approachable.) But just like Barolo, Barbaresco can age for decades: a well-kept 1961 is a thing of beauty – if you can find one.

The minimal ageing requirement is 26 months for Barbaresco (a minimum of nine in oak) and 50 months for Barbaresco riserva (of which 24 are usually spent in oak). This shorter length of time spent in oak means Barbaresco wine, especially when young, generally matches better with food than does Barolo. More good news for wine lovers is that Barbaresco is usually less expensive too – now there’s an advantage to being less famous!

Actually, Barbaresco and Barolo have similar aroma and flavour profiles: you’ll find it’s quite hard to tell them apart in blind tastings. Both are redolent of red roses, violets, sour red cherry, raspberry and sweet spice nuances, but it’s the texture and weight of each that differs most. Barbaresco is a wine of unmatched elegance and refinement, while Barolo offers more power and structure. Ultimately, it’s really a case of first among equals.

Barbaresco’s production area is much smaller than Barolo’s. Only four communes are allowed to make Barbaresco (compared to Barolo’s 11): Barbaresco, Neive, Treiso and San Rocco Seno d’Elvio, though locals often refer to the latter as Alba (San Rocco is a part of the town of Alba).

Just like Barolo, Barbaresco lies on the right side of the Tanaro river but the topography differs between the two areas, accounting in part for the softer personality of Barbaresco’s wines. Barbaresco has generally softer and gentler sloping hills, with vineyards growing at slightly lower altitudes – 280m-300m above sea level on average (only a portion of Treiso’s production zone is higher at up to 500m). And while both Barolo and Barbaresco are characterised by mainly chalky marl soils with patches of sand, limestone and mineral-rich clay, there is a slightly higher proportion of clay in Barbaresco. Furthermore, there are noteworthy differences within the Barbaresco production zone as well, and this shows in the wines.

Barolo: the pros and cons

‘Things are starting to change,’ says Laura Giordano, president of the Enoteca Regionale del Barbaresco and a well-known local producer. ‘The quality level of Barbaresco wines has improved dramatically over the past 10 years, and our producers are starting to travel more, emerging from Barolo’s shadow.’ Gaia Gaja, one of Angelo Gaja’s two talented daughters (younger son Giovanni is also learning the ropes), echoes this view: ‘People now tell me they love Barbaresco more than Barolo. It’s always a matter of individual taste, not a case of one being better than the other, but the key point is that 10 years ago I never heard anybody say that.’

Martina Minuto of Moccagatta voices an opinion held by many other Barbaresco producers: ‘Being much smaller than Barolo, both in terms of hectares (1,984ha for Barolo, 684ha for Barbaresco) and bottle production (12 million bottles/year vs four million/year), and with less history, we’ve always been viewed as the poorer, cheaper, less quality-driven cousin, which isn’t really fair or true.’ Angelo Rocca of Albino Rocca once joked to me that ‘even the phrasing plays against us: people say Barolo and Barbaresco rather than Barbaresco and Barolo, and so we always follow in tow’.

But in fact, many Barbaresco producers don’t consider their vicinity to Barolo a problem. Pier Carlo and Gabriele Cortese of Giuseppe Cortes believe that ‘Barolo is one of the world’s great wines, but so is Barbaresco. It makes sense to work together to better broadcast the individual differences, but also the high quality of the two wines. There’s strength in numbers and Barbaresco is too small to fight this battle alone.’

Bruno Nada of Fiorenzo Nada adds another twist: ‘In some respects, Barbaresco has been dwarfed not just by Barolo but by the sheer presence of two superstars: Gaja and Giacosa. Clearly, it was those two who captured all the attention, not Barbaresco; and of course, they also make Barolo, further muddling things. In truth, the rest of Barbaresco’s wines weren’t always quite up to their high standards, making things even harder.’

Luisa Rocca of Bruno Rocca puts a positive spin on the matter: ‘We’re blessed to have not just Gaja and Giacosa in our midst, but also what many consider to be the world’s greatest cooperative, the Produttori di Barbaresco. All of this attests to the heights that Barbaresco can achieve.’

Producers are bullish about Barbaresco’s prospects. ‘Barbaresco is the one Piedmontese denomination that has most benefited from climate change,’ says Gaja. ‘The wines now have riper flavour profiles without losing their trademark elegance. Over the next 10 years, things will only get better.’

For many producers, the appellation’s small size is a blessing: ‘Of the four major Italian DOCG wines, Barbaresco has the smallest production: our wines are the rarest – another factor that adds to their mystique,’ says Alberto di Gresy of Cisa Asinari Marchesi di Gresy.

He also believes that the recent 2011 vintage will further help Barbaresco’s cause: ‘It’s one of the best vintages in memory. The wines are fuller bodied than usual, but retain their proverbial grace and charm, so there’s never been an easier time to become a Barbaresco lover.’

So in many respects, these are the best of times for Barbaresco. Wine lovers everywhere would do well to fill up their glasses, and their wine cellars, with the best that the region has to offer. There are fewer wines made anywhere in the world that will guarantee as much pleasure.

Written by Ian D’Agata

Next page

It’s time for Piedmont’s ‘other’ great Nebbiolo wine to stop being seen as the perennial bridesmaid to Barolo, says Ian D’Agata. Barbaresco is just as good and (whisper it) in some cases better, especially when it comes to price...

Barbaresco wine: know your vintages

2011: Great vintage of rich yet graceful wines; a minority are overripe, but much better than Barolo. Naturally reduced yields due to flowering difficulties.

Drink 2016-2030

2010: Solid wines; less successful than Barolo due to ill-timed rains.

Drink 2015-2025

2009: Difficult for Barbaresco; at best, soft wines of early appeal.

Drink 2015-2024

2008: Classic vintage of high-acid, tannic wines that will age well.

Drink 2015-2035

2007: A warm vintage of softer wines; some are overripe.

Drink 2015-2025

2006: High acid, resolutely tannic wines that need cellaring.

Drink 2015-2040

2005: Fresh and perfumed wines; underrated due to the late season rains that hit Barolo, but less so in Barbaresco.

Drink 2015-2030

2004: Overrated year: good, well balanced, powerful wines; but many evolving quickly, too ripe and one-dimensional.

Drink 2015-2020.

2003: Very dry, hot year; wines high in alcohol and super-ripe.

Drink up.

2002: Rain-plagued vintage; lighter bodied wines, but some positive surprises.

Drink up.

2001: Stellar vintage that has it all: balance, charm and power.

Drink 2015-2035.

2000: A hot vintage overrated from the start; some very good wines but not the greatest.

Drink 2015-2020

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It’s time for Piedmont’s ‘other’ great Nebbiolo wine to stop being seen as the perennial bridesmaid to Barolo, says Ian D’Agata. Barbaresco is just as good and (whisper it) in some cases better, especially when it comes to price...

Barbaresco’s best sites

In 2007, Barbaresco’s different crus were officially recognised (the so-called Menzioni Geografiche Aggiuntive or MeGA), and these 65 hallowed sites are now recognised on labels. It was about time, too, as locals have long known that some sites always deliver better grapes than others – much like in Burgundy, where a patchwork of premiers and grands crus also exists.

In fact, one of the most fascinating aspects of the region is just how different Barbaresco wines can be depending on where the grapes were grown. Just like there’s a world of difference between a Musigny and a Corton, the same is true of a Barbaresco from Rio Sordo and one from Montestefano.

The crus of Barbaresco

The majority of this sub-region’s best crus are located south of the town of Barbaresco towards the hamlet of Tre Stelle and Treiso. Other quality vineyards lie to the town’s north-east, and of these, Montestefano is an exceptional site. Its higher-lying vines have benefited the most from climate change, as its slightly cooler microclimate guarantees wines of both body and finesse. Generally speaking, the Barbarescos of Barbaresco are the most complete and balanced of all.

Best crus: Pajè, Pora, Asili, Martinenga, Montefico, Montestefano, Muncagota, Rabajà, Rio Sordo, Roncagliette and Secondine. This latter site is where Angelo Gaja sources the grapes for his worldrenowned Sorì San Lorenzo (no longer a Barbaresco because he chooses to include a little Barbera in it; Barbaresco, like Barolo, must be 100% Nebbiolo).

Top producers: Albino Rocca, Bruno Giacosa, Bruno Rocca, Ca’ del Baio, Cascina Bruciata, Cascina delle Rose, Cascina Luisin, Ceretto, Cisa Asinari Marchesi di Gresy, Giuseppe Cortese, Moccagatta, Produttori di Barbaresco, Roagna.

Need to know: The ridge that includes Asili (mainly south/south-east exposure), Rabajà and Martinenga (mainly south/south-west) is the real grand cru of Barbaresco. These three sites, plus Neive’s Santo Stefano and Treiso’s Pajorè are the five best vineyards of the entire Barbaresco DOCG – true grands crus in all but name only. Barbaresco’s Pajè, Montestefano and Rio Sordo are the three best premiers crus.

The crus of Neive

Neive is divided into a lower-lying modern town and a picturesque medieval hamlet. Geology here is complex: moving southwards from Neive, where sites like Cotta and Basarin are found, soils are more sandy (with less limestone and clay) than Barbaresco’s, but more northerly sites, where Santo Stefano and Gallina lie, are richer in clay. Neive is historically also famous for outstanding Dolcetto wines. Generally speaking, the Barbarescos of Neive are the most powerful and structured.

Best crus: Albesani, Basarin, Currá, Cottá, Gallina, Santo Stefano, Serraboella.

Top producers: Bruno Giacosa, Cantina del Glicine, Castello di Neive, Cigliuti, Piero Busso, Sottimano, Ugo Lequio.

Need to know: Santo Stefano may be the single best vineyard of the Barbaresco DOCG – in fact one of the greatest vineyard sites of Italy. Gallina and Serraboella are two outstanding premiers crus: the former gives chunkier, fleshier wines that are hard to resist, while the latter offers greater refinement.

The crus of Treiso

Treiso is one of the few areas in the Langhe where forests still grow tall and temperatures are noticeably cooler, especially at night. The best crus are all located to the north and west of the town. Treiso’s generally much cooler microclimate explains the steely, high-acid resolve of many of its wines, but not all of them – this is one of the most common misconceptions made about Italian wines. While much of Treiso is an area of extreme viticulture not all of its vineyards lie at high altitudes (Rombone, for example). Generally speaking, the Barbarescos of Treiso are the most graceful and refined.

Best crus: Bernardot, Bricco di Treiso, Pajorè, Rombone, Valgrande.

Top producers: Ca’ del Bajo, Fiorenzo Nada, Pellissero, Pio Cesare, Rizzi, Sottimano. Many of the grapes for Gaja’s Barbarescos come from Treiso.

Need to know: The Pajorè cru has always been considered one of the top four or five crus of the Barbaresco DOCG. Rombone, Bricco di Treiso and Bernardot (the last two situated on one of the steepest spots in all the Langhe) are high-quality sites as well.

The crus of San Rocco Seno d’Elvio

The least known of Barbaresco’s communes, the Seno d’Elvio is actually a stream, though locals rightly point out that the Elvio in their town’s name refers to a Roman emperor, Elvio Publio Pertinace, who was born there.

Best crus: Meruzzano, Montersino, Rizzi (all these are shared with Treiso) and Rocche Massalupo.

Top producers: Adriano Marco e Vittorio, Armando Piazzo, Poderi Colla.

Need to know: Over the past 10 years, I’ve been characterising the differences between these wines and the other communes of Barbaresco and though more bottles and vintages will be needed before clear-cut specifics emerge, I believe the wines of San Rocco Seno d’Elvio embody traits that fall somewhere in between those of Treiso and Barbaresco, offering much earlier accessibility but less complexity.

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Individuality is the watchword in this still-emerging region, says Katie Kelly Bell. Read her Santa Barbara travel guide and visit soon for a taste of California’s frontier spirit...

Santa Barbara travel guide

Fact file:

Number of licensed wineries: More than 200

Total vineyard hectares: 8,095ha–10,526ha

AVAs: Santa Maria Valley, Santa Ynez Valley,

Santa Rita Hills and Happy Canyon

Main grape varieties: 55 are grown. Most wineries focus on Syrah, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Grenache.

Quick links:

• My perfect day in Santa Barbara
• Santa Barbara county: where to stay, eat, shop and relax

Introduction:

When the critically acclaimed Jonata winery was exploring initial vineyard sites in Santa Barbara’s Santa Ynez Valley back in 2000, it invited select experts from across the globe to advise on everything from vineyard placement to density. The winemaker, Matt Dees, remembers one specific visit from a French winemaker from Bordeaux: ‘He walked around, saying little. After digging the soil a bit with his pocket knife, he snapped it shut and, with a pronounced sniff, told us to plant asparagus.’

Thankfully, Jonata ignored his advice (even naming a wine Defiance in honour of the snub) and proceeded to cultivate world-class wines, garnering high praise for its Bordeaux varietals, Syrah and Sangiovese wines.

Indeed, defiance is the watchword in Santa Barbara County. This still-emerging wine frontier resists stereotyping and simplification, due in large part to the region’s astonishing density of microclimates and intrepid winemakers who value individuality over rules.

Just two and a half hours north of Los Angeles, the area’s small towns are vestiges of the old stagecoach line from Santa Barbara to San Luis Obispo. You’ll find a few historic remnants of that time in some of the restored Old West frontier architecture, but it remains an impossible region to characterise. Here, steep oceanside cliffs yield to softer rolling hills dotted with olive trees, wild lavender and bent, gnarled oaks. Cowboys and pick-up trucks mingle with BMWs and sedans, just as ranchers and winemakers mingle with tourists and farmers.

• Decanter travel guides to North America

What some view as an identity problem, others view as an exciting opportunity to make wines without rules or expectations. Paul Warson, the winemaker for Firestone Vineyards, notes that ‘because there are no rules, there aren’t any to break’. Sashi Moorman, the winemaker for Sandhi Wines (sandhiwines.com), relishes the environment, making some of his wines as they did in antiquity (stuffing berries directly into the barrel bung hole and allowing them to ferment for a year or longer); using unsealed concrete tanks for ­ageing, and forgoing the use of sulphur. Yet, for Moorman, the most dynamic element is the region’s dramatic climate: ‘The diversity of soil and the dynamic temperatures are a very rare combination; it’s uncommon to have both in play.’

As a transverse valley – one of the world’s few – a 17 ̊C temperature variation exists from one end of the county to the other. A 21 ̊C day in Santa Rita Hills (where Burgundian varieties thrive) is a 38 ̊C day in Happy Canyon (great for Rhône varieties). The one constant is the Pacific Ocean’s cooling influence, with breezes funnelled through the valley, soothing the grapes into gentle ripening, and nurturing acidity. The result is a beautiful marriage of fruit and freshness, variety and complexity. In a single day of wine touring you might come across a juicy cherry-berry Malbec, an Albariño perfumed with peaches and flowers and a dense, smoky Syrah – and you’ll only have driven 24km. Given this extraordinary confluence of geography, sun and experimentation, Santa Barbara County is a wine adventurer’s paradise.

Tasting trails

The region is best considered as a wheel, with the town of Buellton at the centre and tasting trails as spokes heading in different directions. The towns are small and easily navigable, and distances are negligible – if you’re ambitious enough you can manage two or even three spokes of the tasting wheel in a single day.

For a taste of cool-climate, Burgundian-style wines, make tracks for the town of Lompoc in the Santa Rita Hills, about 15 minutes from Buellton. Much like Burgundy, you’ll find mostly Pinot Noir and Chardonnay here. Gavin Chanin, the winemaker for Lutum, notes that Santa Barbara ‘has an ideal climate for Pinot Noir. Burgundy gets maybe 100 days from flower to harvest; we enjoy 130 days. Our wines ripen on sunshine, not heat’. The Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noirs drink like a prima ballerina with a no-nonsense left hook, delivering elegance, balance and beauty with spices, ripe fruit and serious concentration.

Take in the vineyard scenery and drive down Santa Rosa Road or park the car and sample wines in the Lompoc Wine Ghetto, aptly named for the industrial-park ambience of the tasting rooms. What it lacks in architectural charms it makes up for in delicious wines.

Two stops that also merit a visit are Piedrasassi, with gorgeous, small-batch Chardonnay and Syrah from the winemaker Sashi Moorman, and Palmina – beautifully expressed Italian varieties: Arneis, Dolcetto and Barbera from the winemaker Steve Clifton. Be sure to pop into Sashi Moorman’s bakery, New Vineland Bread, just behind his tasting room, for fresh loaves for your sandwiches later.

Serious Grenache and Syrah can be found on the northern spoke, up Foxen Canyon Road, about 10 minutes from Buellton. Here you’ll bump into a bit more of the Wild West spirit of Santa Barbara County, and much higher temperatures. Vintners, such as Koehler, offer aromatic Rieslings along with the likes of a supple, rich Sangiovese/Cabernet Sauvignon blend (Magia Nera). It’s also a peaceful picnic spot.

At Zaca Mesa go for the samplings of Syrahs from some of the region’s oldest vines – and enjoy the life-size chessboard and short winery hiking trail while you’re there.

The town of Los Olivos, about five minutes’ drive from Buellton, is a mini-spoke on the wheel, but packed with tasting options. In addition to wine, you’ll find olive oil producers and expert restaurateurs. The perfect place for an afternoon stroll, Los Olivos has a concentration of small winery tasting rooms, such as The Los Olivos Tasting Room, where nine wines are poured and 90 are for sale.

Santa Barbara County is no small region to explore, but that’s part of the adventure. Winemakers are experimenting, and producing some knockout wines. But when darkness falls, all is quiet – a sudden contrast to the sunny optimism of a typical Santa Barbara day. Temperatures drop and stars emerge in an unparalleled density, leaving the sky lacy with glittering light. Now is the time to open your bottle of California sunshine, light a fire, and savour the taste of defiance.

And the word is out. Ethan Lindquist, national sales director for Qupé Winery and the winemaker/owner of Ethan Wines notes: ‘This region isn’t a secret anymore.’ Indeed, tourists from home and abroad flock here on weekends, which makes weekdays the ideal time to plan your cellar door visits. As for the right time of year to visit? Rain is rare and the weather is welcoming year- round, but spring and autumn are best for the beauty of the landscape and ideal temperatures.

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Individuality is the watchword in this still-emerging region, says Katie Kelly Bell. Read her Santa Barbara travel guide and visit soon for a taste of California’s frontier spirit...

Santa Barbara travel guide: My perfect day

Morning

Drive to your first stop at the new Pali Tasting Room in Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone, close to the ocean. Pali offers a good exploration of New World Pinot with its wines from Oregon and California. The Santa Rita Hills Pinot is impressive (paliwineco.com).

Lunch

Enjoy the oceanfront patio at the Four Seasons, a few miles away, and look out for whales. Order a bottle of Gavin Chanin’s exquisite Lutum Santa Barbara Pinot Noir.

Afternoon

Continue the scenic drive north deeper into Santa Barbara county. Next stop is Buellton for a private tasting at Jonata’s winery. The wines easily outshine the warehouse setting, and you’ll enjoy a rare opportunity to taste a range of terroirs from its award- winning and diverse portfolio (think sunny-climate Syrah and Sangiovese, and cool-climate Pinot Noir and Chardonnay). They’ll pour what’s showing best at the moment – not the current release – and you are likely to get some quality time with someone on the winemaking team. Appointments are a must (jonata.com).

Evening and overnight

A five-minute drive brings you to Los Olivos where you can leave the car as everything is within walking distance. Stop by the Qupé tasting room for a stellar selection of Rhône varietals, especially the Sawyer Lindquist Grenache and Rousanne wines. Then, cross the street to Mattei’s Tavern, where you can settle in for dinner after a glass at The Watering Hole there for a tasting of Sandhi wines. These are beautiful expressions of the Santa Rita Hills: Chardonnays with minerally backbones and Pinot Noirs with an enviable blend of fruit, spice and earth. Finally, it’s just a short stroll to the Fess Parker Inn, a boutique hotel where all rooms and suites have a fireplace.

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Individuality is the watchword in this still-emerging region, says Katie Kelly Bell. Read her Santa Barbara travel guide and visit soon for a taste of California’s frontier spirit...

Santa Barbara travel guide: Where to stay, eat, shop and relax

Santa Barbara restaurants

Hitching Post

Relive the best and worst moments from the movie Sideways at this classic western steakhouse (where much of the movie was filmed). The menu features smoked duck, Texas quail and some serious steaks. hitchingpost2.com

Succulent

A great stop for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Try the poached eggs with braised spinach and buffalo sauce or biscuit with house- cured pancetta. succulentcafe.com

Mattei’s Tavern

Once a historic stagecoach stop, this newly restored destination has creative delights from its chef Robbie Wilson. His Dirty Laundry charcuterie – house-cured goodies hanging on a ‘clothes line’ over a board of cheeses – and pimento cheeseburger are worth the visit alone. The tavern has newly opened luxury cottages, plus spa, pool and restaurant. matteistavern.com

Full of Life Flatbread Pizza

This is where the locals go for quality pizza, but you’ll also find foraged chanterelles, eggplant flatbread or heirloom tomato salad, depending on seasonal pickings. fulloflifefoods.com

Santa Barbara hotels

Koehler Winery

Rent the private home at this charming winery along the rural Foxen Canyon Road. Perched on a hillside adjacent to the tasting room (pictured above), the home is spacious, with only grapes and goats for neighbours. The fully stocked kitchen makes it ideal for a large group travelling together. koehlerwinery.com

Fess Parker Inn

An historic inn, now a boutique hotel, ideal for a romantic escape, with a touch of luxury and an award-winning Champagne spa right in the centre of Los Olivos. Make time for breakfast at the hotel’s Petros restaurant – the house-made Greek yoghurt and granola with Greek honey is world-class delicious. fessparkerinn.com

Santa Barbara shops

Jedlicka’s

Check out this tack shop, western outfitter and supply store in Los Olivos. One of the best cowboy-boot selections I’ve seen, as well as cowboy hats, shirts, jackets, jewellery, small gifts and belts. This has bags of local character, showing the western heartbeat of this area – it’s still wild country. jedlickas.com

Bin 2860

Located adjacent to the Fess Parker Inn in Los Olivos, this intimate shop is packed with a smart international and local wine selection and the region’s best range of craft beers. Daily tastings are informative, and it’s a great place to get local tips on dining and touring. bin2860.com

How to get there

Direct flights into Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) with connections into Santa Barbara’s local airport are best to avoid the Los Angeles traffic. From Santa Barbara the wine region is a 45-minute drive (or 2.5 hours from LAX).

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Carla Capalbo finds the moody landscape of rolling vineyards a picturesque backdrop to the Barolo, truffles, pasta and other regional delights on offer here. Read her Langhe travel guide, first published in Decanter's September 2011 issue.

Langhe, Piedmont fact file:

Planted area: 6,800 hectares

Main grapes: Nebbiolo, Barbera, Dolcetto

Soils: Mainly limestone and clay. The subsoil is clay, limestone marl, tufa, sulphurous sands and chalk. It is the layering of these different elements that gives the wines their elegance and structure

Quick links:

– Six of the best wineries to visit

– Where to stay, shop, eat and relax

Few grape names conjure so well the atmosphere from which they originate as Nebbiolo, the main native grape of central Piedmont. Nebbia means fog in Italian, and le Langhe, as the gentle hills that Nebbiolo likes best are called, are often shrouded in mist. Far from being a visual deterrent, the fog softens contours and colours, and adds an air of mystery to hilltop castles and sloping vineyards. Nothing can beat a foggy evening spent in the comfort of a local osteria, eating truffle-topped noodles or local beef braised in a fine Barolo or Barbaresco – Nebbiolo wines per excellenza. Wine has been made here since Roman times. The royal house of Savoy, living in spectacular palaces in and around Turin, were fond of the long-established Barolo, as was the court of Louis XIV. France’s historical influence on Piedmont extended to its winemaking: the Piedmontese statesman and architect of Italy’s unification, Camillo Cavour, dabbled in viticulture to ensure a steady supply at his table.

• See more Decanter travel guides to Italy

Sights to behold

The Langhe hills, and their extensions into Monferrato and Roero, are a self-contained enclave thanks to their distinct geography. To their north and west are the glacier-sculpted mountains of the Alps – a backdrop that comes into focus on a clear day when a northerly wind is blowing. To the northeast are the flat fields of the Po valley that are home to Vercelli, one of Italy’s primary rice-growing zones. Go south across the Apennines and you quickly descend to the sea at Genova, the steep and powerful Mediterranean port.

Only a short drive south-east from Turin, Langhe is easy to reach; it has the added advantage of being less well known to foreigners than some of Italy’s other top winemaking areas. Yet the region is not short on sights – viticultural and otherwise – or terrific restaurants, hotels and agritourismo stays. Busy market towns such as Alba, Asti, Bra and Cuneo are full of life, and offer good bases from which to tour small roads and villages, ideally by car, bike or even on foot.

Mention Langhe to any Italian and their eyes light up at the thought of the delicious wines and foods produced there. Barbaresco, Barolo, La Morra, Serralunga… these legendary names recur on top restaurant wine lists across Italy. They represent the villages, hamlets and castles whose names have been given to wines produced on specific slopes or hillsides – Italy’s first ‘crus’. Indeed, Langhe has much in common with Burgundy. This, too, is vigneron country: small vineyard holdings are owned and worked by families who never left the land or emigrated in the 20th century. There’s been a constant demand for their wines, so even a few hectares can sustain a family. It’s always best to phone to make an appointment if you want to meet the owner-winemakers: they might otherwise be out working in the vineyards.

While modern viticulture and hotter summers have helped Nebbiolo to ripen fully, it is admired for its elegant, austere, complex character. Many wines improve with added cellaring. Those who enjoy more immediate drinking won’t miss out: winemakers are now producing affordable, fruity reds from Dolcetto, long considered Nebbiolo’s poor cousin. Barbera, a grape with higher acidity, has been mellowed by warm summers, too. There are wines for every taste, from those aged traditionally in large barrels to wines produced in barriques and using modern technology.

Bring your appetite

Piedmont is foodie heaven. Alba is known for its heady white truffles, so go in autumn to take advantage of them on everything from eggs to risotto. The truffle season runs over six or seven weeks, from October to mid-November, with the best time around mid-October. Game and wild mushrooms are other autumn treats.

The lower slopes of hills planted to vines are used to cultivate prestigious hazelnuts – tonda gentile delle Langhe. These are folded into nougat, pounded into cookies and confections, and often married to chocolate. Nutella and its nobler versions originate here, and Cuneo is famous for its Cunese – hazelnut and rum-scented chocolates.

Don’t miss thin handmade egg noodles, tajarin. Yolk-yellow, they are fabulously rich topped with melted butter, meat sauces or porcini mushrooms. Agnolotti, local ravioli stuffed with mixed meats, are also local to Langhe. Meats here are often braised slowly in red wine – not food for the faint hearted, but they go well with the local red wines. A long walk in the vineyards after lunch will bring you back feeling surprisingly ready for dinner.

There are many other reasons to visit Langhe in autumn. Medieval Asti holds an annual Palio horse race and pageant in September that predates Siena’s by 400 years. Slow Food organises a superb cheese extravaganza in alternate years to the Salone del Gusto. ‘Cheese’, as the festival is called, will be held in Bra in September 2011 and makes a great focus to a trip, with hundreds of stalls of unique dairy products, as well as demonstrations, tasting seminars and chef-cooked cheese meals.

In October and November, Alba holds an annual truffle fair and international auction: last year the most expensive lot (less than 1.4kg of the precious white fungus) sold for $330,000. Much smaller pieces are on offer in all the local restaurants; a little shaved over a plate of pasta can go a long way.

Hotels and tourist offices in every town are well informed on local walking and wine routes and will make cellar reservations for visitors. All you need is the time to meander through the countryside, and the inclination to enjoy the wines.

How to get there:

By plane to Turin: about 1hr 45min direct from London Gatwick. Then 110km by car to Alba – about 1hr 20 min

Written by Decanter

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Carla Capalbo finds the moody landscape of rolling vineyards a picturesque backdrop to the Barolo, truffles, pasta and other regional delights on offer here. Read her Langhe travel guide, first published in Decanter's September 2011 issue.

Langhe: Six of the best wineries to visit

Take a look at Decanter’s pick of the best six wineries to visit while in Langhe in Peidmont.

All wineries require visits to be made by prior appointment.

☆ Albino Rocca, Barbaresco

Angelo Rocca has become a central figure in the Barbaresco landscape. His welcoming estate produces some of the top wines in this prestigious appellation. roccaaalbino.com

☆ Bartolo Mascarello, Barolo

The late Bartolo Mascarello was a winemaking legend in Italy and beyond – one of the founding fathers of modern Barolo. His daughter, Maria Teresa, now runs the family estate, producing some of Italy’s most iconic wines in large wooden casks. Tel: +39 0173 56125

☆ GD Vajra, Vergne, Barolo

Aldo and Milena Vajra are two of Langhe’s most hospitable winemakers. They aim to reduce the use of tractors and chemicals, and increase reliance on natural yeasts. It results in wines of finesse and character. gdvajra.it

☆ Fratelli Barale, Barolo

A traditional, familyrun winery that had been producing elegant Barolo, Barbaresco and Arneis since 1870, located in the town centre. baralefratelli.it

☆ La Spinetta, Campè, Grinzane Cavour

The Rivetti family is among Piedmont’s superstar producers and owns two wineries in the region, making fabulous Barolo and Barbaresco, most with the iconic Albrecht Dürer rhinos and lions on the labels. la-spinetta.com

>☆ Poderi Einaudi, Dogliani

The historic estate of former Italian president and economist, Luigi Einaudi, is now run by his grandchildren. Its boasts a vaulted cellar, fine wines and views of the hills, as well as a 10room agriturismo. poderieinaudi.com

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Carla Capalbo finds the moody landscape of rolling vineyards a picturesque backdrop to the Barolo, truffles, pasta and other regional delights on offer here. Read her Langhe travel guide, first published in Decanter's September 2011 issue.

Langhe: Where to stay, shop, eat and relax

From corkscrews to castles and bountiful Piedmontese hospitality, see Decanter’s recommendations for the best hotels, restaurants, shops and sights in Langhe.

Hotels and Restaurants

Hotel Palazzo Lovera

Explore the Roero area and Cuneo from a family-run hotel situated in a historic palazzo in the heart of this vibrant market town. palazzolovera.com

Hotel Cantine Ascheri

Located in Bra, above Ascheri’s handsome winery, this modern designer hotel makes a comfortable base for touring wine country, and includes its own delicious Osteria Murivecchi. Wine tastings are held in the spectacular cellars below. ascherihotel.it

Palas Cerequio

Immerse yourself in Barolo vineyards at the luxurious country house spa opened by notable Langhe producer Michele Chiarlo. Sample many of the area’s best wines here while enjoying the comfortably designed suites. Opens early September 2011. palascerequio.com

Hotel Restaurant Barolo

Stay in the centre of Barolo village, with great views over the vineyards, and try the handmade noodles in the restaurant. hotelbarolo.it

Enoteca di Canale

This fabulous wine shop sells all the area’s wines, and houses star chef Davide Palluda’s modernist restaurant. davidepalluda.it

Osteria Boccondivino

Bra is the operational centre of Slow Food and this is its in-house restaurant, open to all for great local dishes and atmosphere. boccondivinoslow.it

Piazza Duomo

Top chef Enrico Crippa cooks creatively at this stylish two Michelin-starred restaurant overlooking Alba’s Duomo. Or eat downstairs, at his more relaxed, affordable bistro, La Piola. piazzaduomoalba.it

Shops and sights

Agenzia di Pollenzo

The House of Savoy’s magnificent royal estate has recently been completely restored and now houses Slow Food’s Gastronomic Sciences university, Wine Bank, Hotel dell’Agenzia and the elegant Guido restaurant. This UNESCO World Patrimony site is a one-stop must for all the gastronomic senses. agenziadipollenzo.com

Castle of Serralunga d’Alba

Spectacular views of the Langhe from atop this high 14th-century medieval castle. For the sure of foot only. www.castellilanghe roero.it/welcome_eng.lasso

Corkscrew Museum

This unique corkscrew collection housed in central Barolo is fun to visit and gives an overview of how wine drinking customs have changed over the centuries. museodeicavatappi.it

Nougat

Visit Davide Barbero’s oldfashioned candy factory in central Asti, making nougat from Langhe hazelnuts – Italy’s finest. barberodavide.it

For more information about tourism and wine roads in the area, visit: langheroero.it

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Find out who won the regional trophy for over £10. And the winner is...

Barolo Brunate Francesco Borgogno

Francesco Borgogno is a little known but high quality estate typical of Piedmont, where small, family-run estates often produce the region’s greatest wines; and though the Borgogno last name is common in Barolo, this family is unrelated to the others.

The estate was founded in the ‘50s and is smartly run today by brothers Giancarlo, who follows the vineyards, and Claudio, who makes the wines. Silvia, Claudio’s wife, handles the commercial aspects.

The estate owns five hectares in all and makes typical wines of the area, such as Dolcetto, Barolo and a white Favorita. It’s the Barolo Brunate that turns heads, a very worthy winner of the 2010 Decanter WWA Regional Trophy (over £10).

It’s made from grapes grown in what is unquestionably one of the five greatest Barolo vineyards, the famous Brunate of La Morra, known for highly perfumed, early developing, spicy wines of incomparable finesse. Francesco Borgogno owns over three hectares in Brunate – a sizable amount.

More accurately, a portion of the vines are located in the cru Fontanazza (now considered part of Brunate) which is historically famous for simpler Nebbiolo wines.

The blend of grapes from these south-east, exposed, very old vines (planted in 1950 and 1970) produces a marvellous, traditionally-made Barolo with long skin-to-juice contact and only large oak barrels used.

It’s a great wine; intense aromas of sour red cherry and violet; rich and creamy yet fresh, with softer tannins than you’d expect from Barolo and age worthy and fairly priced given its level of quality. Bravo!

Written by Ian d’Agata

The styles, regions and vintages every wine lover should know about

Native whites

Yes, whites. Compared to their red counterparts, Italy’s most representative white varieties tend to be restrained and understated, with delicate floral aromas and nervy acidity.

They are also subject to periodical identity crises, prompted by the ambition to compete in the global arena with the Chardonnays and Sauvignons of this world.

All the native white varieties, from Ribolla in Friuli to Cortese in Gavi, Garganega in Soave, Procanico in Orvieto, Marche’s Verdicchio and the Tuscan Vernaccia have, at one time or another and to a greater or lesser degree, suffered efforts to crank them up through blending with international varieties, late harvesting, new oak treatment or arcane vinification methods.

But a major re-think is underway. The current trend is towards a much more essentialist approach to white winemaking which, rather than forcing native varieties into moulds that do not fit, seeks to bring out their intrinsic character.

The models are the classic wines of the traditional DOCs. The buzz words, from Nosiola in Trentino down to the Fianos of Campania, are ‘terroir’, ‘minerality’ and ‘vineyard’.

The results are unoaked, 100% varietals with unique, unequivocal Italian-ness.

Three to try:

Il Palazzone, Campo Guardiano, Orvieto Classico Superiore 2008

POA Justerini and Brooks

Intense, herby nose, with notes of bay and sage and a distinctive salty note. Bone-dry palate, intense and minerally with a return of fresh herbs, huge length and concentration on the finish. Drink: 2011–2018. Alc: 13%

Suavia, Monte Carbonare,

Soave Classico 2008

£13.30–£17.50 Bibendum, Everywine, Flying Corkscrew

Citrus nose with hints of sweet almond and a touch of smokiness. Fresh, agile and tasty with white currants and amazing length and purity. Drink 2011-2018. Alc: 13%

La Monacesca, Mirum,

Verdicchio di Matelica Riserva 2008

£18.50 Winetraders

Nose opens slowly with honey then mint and rosemary and a vague hint of inkiness. The palate has concentrated candied peel, apricot and nectarine and huge length. Drink: 2011–2018. Alc: 14%

Brunello di Montalcino 2006

The much-awaited 2006 vintage at Montalcino is not one for the faint-hearted. There is none of the immediate fruit of the 2005s, nor the elegance of the 2004s.

The baking hot summer gave enormously powerful Brunellos which show the austere, savoury side of Sangiovese.

Do they live up to their official 5-star rating? The answer is a qualified “yes”.

The least successful wines have cooked fruit and a Porty, alcoholic quality which takes away from their appeal, but the best are vibrant terroir wines, bursting with energy.

The 2006s are phenolic on the nose, sometimes with wild herbs, sometimes inky, sometimes with notes of iodine.

On the palate they are concentrated and very dry with an intense minerally tang. Big as they are, they have two features which save them from simple blockbuster dumbness: quality tannins and an acidity which carries the abundant alcohol.

Raw and raunchy now, they need time to come together, but they should provide some memorable bottles, worthy of Brunello’s reputation for longevity.

The single-vineyard and special-selection wines look particularly good. Estates to seek out, besides those below, include Livio Sassetti, Sesti, Siro Pacenti, Villa I Cipressi, Tenuta di Sesta, Tenuta Le Potazzine, Tenuta Oliveto, Casanuova delle Cerbaie, Corte Pavone, Lisini, Franco Pacenti, Podere Canalino, Silvio Nardi, Tiezzi, Piccolomini d’Aragona and the best-ever Prime Donne from Donatella Cinelli Colombini.

Three to try:

Castello di Romitorio, XXV Vendemmia

N/A UK www.castelloromitorio.com

Spectacular nose, with wild berries, iodine and black tea. Great energy, breadth and depth on the palate, with very fine tannins and intriguing complexity in the finish. Still very raw, but will be great. Drink: 2014–2030. Alc: 14%

Salvioni

£69.50 Bordeaux Index

Leafy, herby nose with delicate floral underlay and a lovely vein of fresh cherry fruit. Very tight and concentrated on the palate with exceptional finesse for the vintage. Deceptively understated; will be great.

Drink: 2012–2030. Alc: 14.5%

Gaja, Pieve Santa Restituta, Rennina

£51.34 Everywine

Earthy nose, with notes of moss, peat and violets in the background. Massive palate but also great freshness. Long and punchy on the finish with notes of cherry brandy and minerals. Drink: 2012–2030. Alc: 15%

Barolo 2004

There is no question about the longevity of the 2004 Barolos, but the good news is that these marvellous wines are also starting to drink beautifully now.

This might seem early – in the past, to suggest opening a Barolo from a great vintage before its 10th birthday was viewed in the Langhe as subversive in the extreme.

Today it is permissible. In the specific case of the 2004s, the justification lies in the quality of the vintage, with its near-perfect tannins, balance and aroma.

More generally, it’s the consequence of a winemaking style that brings drinking significantly forward. This is not a new development. Pioneers such as Elio Altare launched the manifesto in favour of a more accessible, earlier drinking Barolo more than 20 years ago.

What the 2004s perhaps confirm is a definitive change in the mindset in the Langhe which has made the term ‘modernist’, much bandied about in the past, redundant.

These days, it is the ‘traditionalist’ who gets flagged as the odd man out. (NB: If you are lucky enough to have 2004s from the great Bruno Giacosa, Beppe Rinaldi, Mascarello, Giovanni Conterno or Cavalotto in your cellar, then disregard everything I have just written – the 10-year rule holds for these greats).

Three to try:

Sandrone, Cannubi Boschis

£80–£100 Berry Bros & Rudd, Slurp, Winetraders

Elegant, fresh and complex nose of violets, redcurrants, bay and cinnamon. Great purity and focus on the palate, which starts dry and intense and opens broad and long with powdery tannins and infinite length. Sublime. Drink: 2011–2020. Alc: 14.5%

Elio Altare, Vigneto Arborina

£90–£146 Fine & Rare, Nichols & Perks

Intense, fresh Nebbiolo nose, with a vast spectrum of aromas from billberry, black cherry and violets through fresh mushroom to sweet fennel. Fluid palate, with super-fine tannins and a very long, vigorous finish. Drink: 2011–2020. Alc: 14.5%

Paolo Scavino, Bric del Fiasc

£55–£62 Albany Vintners, Berry Bros & Rudd, Christopher Keiler, Everywine, Fine & Rare, Nichols & Perks

Ripe, sweet, mature nose with notes of new leather, tar, liquorice and nutmeg. Big, smooth, soft palate with very fine, dense tannins and an austere, dry, savoury finish with weighty concentration. Drink: 2011–2015. Alc: 14.5%

Malvasia Istriana

As the name suggests, this particular member of the Malvasia family (left) originated in Istria, from where it spread up the coast to what is now Friuli-Venezia Giulia in the 14th century.

Friuli is the only Italian region which grows the variety today. Traditionally it has been considered a minor grape, used mainly in blends rather than alone, but it is starting to find its own voice.

Left to its own devices, Malvasia tends to make rather simple, dilute wines, but if yields are kept in check it is capable of whites with a personal, floral character, peachy fruit and great sensitivity to terroir.

On the limestone plateau above the bay of Trieste, Carso Malvasia is all tangy intensity. In the Collio and the upper Isonzo on the other hand, the wines are rich and round with impressive depth of fruit and often a distinctive spicy nuance.

‘Feminine’, says Nicòla Manferrari, who is one of the variety’s greatest supporters. ‘Mediterranean’, says Gianfranco Gallo, who has recently started bottling a special selection.

More elegant than Friulano (ex-Tocai) and more complete than Ribolla, and yet mysteriously less planted than either, Malvasia is – hopefully – heading for a revival.

Three to try:

Borgo del Tiglio, Collio 2008

£27–£42 Astrum, Bordeaux Index, Ten Acre Wine

Elegant, complex, scented with aromas of pressed flowers, honeydew melon and a hint of walnut oil. Glossy, concentrated ripe fruit palate with white pepper on the finish. Very personal. Drink: 2011–2016. Alc: 14%

Skerk, Carso 2008

£25 Bat & Bottle

Intense citrus and white blossoms on the nose, mouthwatering freshness on the palate filled out by masterfully handled lees ageing. Subtle fruit and a long, minerally finish. Drink: 2011–2015. Alc: 12.5%

Vie de Romans, Isonzo, Dis Cumieris 2008

N/A UK www.viediromans.it

Sweet, floral nose, with hints of tropical fruit and cinnamon in the background. Soft, round and full-bodied palate with suave complexity and length on the finish. Drink: 2011–2018. Alc: 14%

Pink fizz

Over the past five years, Italy has witnessed a demonstration of one of the basic laws of commerce that, if demand exceeds offer, then production must expand to meet it.

Demand in this case is for pink sparkling wine. The response has come from all quarters. The quick fix is to put bubbles into existing rosés, as in the case of the pleasantly undemanding Bardolino Chiaretto Spumante (look for the excellent Monte Saline’s Metodo Classico).

This idea is also catching on in Puglia, where noted wine consultant Riccardo Cotarella has been involved in a new Metodo Classico for the historic Five Roses producer Leone de Castris.

Other examples look slightly more improvised, such as a Frappato-based fizz from Sicily or another made from Aglianico in Basilicata.

The more serious stuff comes from the DOC or DOCG zones with a spumante tradition and their own Pinot Noir grapes.

The producers’ consorzio in the Oltrepò, which has more than 3,000ha of Pinot, has just launched a new brand of Metodo Classico Rosé called Cruasé – watch this space.

The top wines come from Trentino and in Franciacorta, where Cà del Bosco has made a big splash with the first vintage of a luxury cuvée made from 100% Pinot Noir, aged for seven years on the lees.

Three to try:

Cà del Bosco, Cuvée Anna Maria Clementi,

Extra Brut Rosé, Franciacorta 2003

£65 (2002) Christopher Keiler

Great freshness on the nose with suggestions of cherry pie, rose hip jelly and delicate floral nuances, great intensity on the palate, minuscule perlage, long,

savoury finish with underlying notes of cherry liqueur. Drink: 2011–2025. Alc: 12.5%

Cavalleri, Rosé Collezione,

Franciacorta 2005

£37.25 (2004) Everywine

Fresh, crusty nose. Palate of substance and energy, with firm acid structure and a long, salty finish with a very good return of pinot noir fruit.

Drink: 2011–2015. Alc: 12.5%

Ferrari, Perlé Rosé Metodo Classico, Trentino 2005

£22–£52 Bat & Bottle, Vinum

Delicate red fruit nose with a touch of floral-spicy nuances. Palate firm and dry with good body, fine perlage and a return of red currant fruit at the end. Drink: 2011–2015.

Alc: 12.5%

Taurasi 2007

Taurasi is a hilltop village in Campania’s Irpinia region, high in the Apennine mountains. The red wine that grows here is made from Aglianico, and belongs to that category of full-bodied, austerely tannic reds at the most serious end of the Italian wine spectrum.

Despite its ‘Barolo of the south’ tag, Taurasi is not one of the country’s better known wines. Its reputation among specialists has long been assured by Mastroberardino’s spectacularly long-lived reserves, but for decades this historic winery was a flagship without a fleet.

Wider recognition of Taurasi’s potential has only come more recently, with the increase in the number of producers and the upgrading of what used to be very uneven quality standards.

The 2007s, which are coming out this year, are evidence of the new credibility of the denomination. They have ripe but not overextracted tannins, good freshness and oak which leaves lots of space for the expression of the Aglianco grape.

The DOCG has a good co-op and an increasing nucleus of high quality grower-producers which includes, besides the three below, Colle San Domenico, Contrade di Taurasi, Di Prisco, Molettieri, Tecce, Perillo and Tenuta Cavallier Pepe.

Three to try:

Feudi di San Gregorio 2007

£28.50 Slurp

Fresh and complex with wild berries and liquorice on the nose and delicate spicy notes in the background. Very firm, dry palate with refined tannins and elegant length. Drink: 2012–2017. Alc: 13%

Mastroberardino, Radici 2007

£29.50–£32 (2005) Amordivino, Wine Circle

Nicely defined floral-herby nose with sweet ripe fruit at the back. Quite soft on the palate with classy tannic weave and good freshness on the finish. Needs time to absorb the oak. Drink: 2013–2017. Alc: 13.5%

Villa Raiano, Raiano 2007

N/A UK www.villaraiano.com

Ripe, concentrated oaky fruit on the nose with suggestions of wild herbs. Juicy berry fruit on the palate with lots of smoothed out tannin and a big, round, velvety finish. Drink: 2012–2017. Alc: 14%

Bardolino

Bardolino, from Lake Garda in the Veneto, has been one of the victims of the opinion that held sway in Italy over the past 20 years that ‘light’ and ‘red’ were contradictions in terms.

The unpopularity of its traditional character prompted attempts at restyling, which went from the Beaujolais Nouveau-model Novello through the oaked-up Bardolino Superiore, to the sparkling pink Chiaretto.

Now, after the string of mutations, which did more to cover up the real issues (chronic over-cropping and casual winemaking) than resolve them, Bardolino is returning to the pale, juicy reds with the cherry and almond aromas that it does best. Except that today, it is making them much, much better.

Lake Garda looks set to play a strategic role in the reds of the Veneto in the future. With production of the fresh style of Valpolicella rapidly declining, it is Bardolino that has picked up the standard of the dry, tangy Corvina-based wines which used to be the stock in trade of the hills of Verona.

Unoaked and not more than 12.5% alcohol, these delicious reds prove that personality depends on varietal integrity and sense of place, rather than huge concentration, and that ‘light’ and ‘red’ can after all be complementary.

Three to try:

Le Fraghe 2009

£8.95 The Wine Society

Natural grapey nose, with red cherry fruit and sweet almond aromas. Fresh, juicy palate, fine dry tannins at the back and a long finish with hints of mint and fennel. Drink: 2011–2012. Alc: 12%

Giovanna Tantini 2009

£12.50–£13.50 Bat & Bottle, Wine Library, Winetraders

Delicate, very personal nose with aromas of pressed flowers, cherry and liquorice. Ripe fruit, smooth tannins and a bone dry, savoury finish with lots of length.

Drink: 2011–2013. Alc: 12%

Raval, Classico 2010

N/A UK +39 (0)4 57 23 65 69

Lovely, fresh maraschino and almonds on the nose with floral notes at the side. Zippy palate with crisp acidity, good tannic presence and tight-packed fruit concentration in the finish. Drink: 2011–2012. Alc: 12.5%

Marsala

Until a very short time ago, Marsala had been given up for dead. Today, in the wake of the general interest created by the Sicilian wine boom, it is slowly making a comeback.

This timid revival needs to be put in perspective. Sadly, if you Google the word ‘Marsala’, you still get pages and pages of cookery sites. It will be a long time before Sicily’s historic fortified wine liberates itself from its image as a cheap ingredient for sauces.

But today it is possible to drink Marsalas of quality and character, either in the searingly intense salty-dry style or the more accommodating grapey semi-secco.

The interest starts at the Superiore Riserva level, which must be at least four years old, and increases with the age of the wine through the categories of vergine (or soleras) to vergine/soleras stravecchio and riserva.

For the ultimate experience, get your hands on one of the rare, very old vintage riservas from Florio, Rallo or Pellegrino – wines of extraordinary intensity for enthralled sipping.

But do not disdain the more readily available wines from these producers’ wide ranges. There are intentionally no drink dates here: Marsala lasts indefinitely

Three to try:

De Bartoli, Oro Vigna La Miccia, Superiore

N/A UK www.marcodebartoli.com

Sweet hazelnut and date aromas, with sultana and a hint of saltiness. Lovely round, sweet fruit palate, with great freshness and zippy mineral finish. Alc: 18%Florio, Ambra Donna Franca, Semisecco 15 Years,

Superiore Riserva

N/A UK www.cantineflorio.it

Rich nose of sultana, walnuts and figs with a distinctive salty nuance. Well-knit palate with bright acidity to contrast the spirit and an elegant sweetness to underline the fruit and green walnut finish. Alc: 19%

Pellegrino, Vergine Riserva 1981

N/A UK www.carlopellegrino.it

Mature, austere nose with great mineral intensity and subtle dried fruit and nut aromas. Bone-dry palate, with mouthwatering acidity and an intense, slightly spirity finish. Alc: 19%

Sub-14% alcohol wines

Perhaps it is the implosion of the market for hyper-concentrated show wines, perhaps a response to society’s slightly edgy awareness of the health issues associated with alcohol, or just the basic realisation that the opportunities for drinking blockbuster wines, however theoretically well-balanced, are limited in everyday life.

Whatever the reason, there is growing consensus in Italy that it is time to throttle back on the alcohol. This does not mean stripping down Barolo, Brunello or Amarone, but simply not pumping up the alcohol where it does not belong – in wines made for pleasurable, everyday drinking with a meal.

This implies a greater focus on what used to be Italy’s core business before the advent of the attention-grabbing ‘SuperTuscans’: food-friendly, medium-bodied wines from native grapes.

The country has a whole raft of varietal wines which deliver their best at under 14% and even better between 12% and 13%: Schiava from Alto Adige, Dolcetto, Lambrusco, young Chianti from theColli Fiorentini, Frappato from Sicily, Cerasuolo from Abruzzo, Lake Garda reds, Vermentino from Tuscany. All this without chasing after rarities like Blanc de Morgex from Val d’Aosta, Pigato from Liguria or Ribolla from Friuli-Venezia Giulia.

They might not all be in your supermarket yet, but keep a look out, because a lot of people believe this is where the future of wine Italian exports lie.

Three to try:

Cavicchioli, Vigna del Cristo,

Lambrusco di Sorbara 2009

N/A UK www.cavicchioli.it

Light mousse, delicate rose petal and red cherry nose. Savoury, bone-dry, mouthwatering palate with a long floral-almond finish. Drink: 2011. Alc: 11%

Glögglhof, Santa Maddalena,

Alto Adige 2009

N/A UK www.gojer.it

Irresistible cherry and spice nose. Soft, smooth, medium-weight palate with a return of red fruit and then a touch of sweet almonds on the finish. Drink: 2011. Alc: 12.5%

Malenchini, Chianti Colli Fiorentini 2009

£6.75–£9.99 The Wine Society, Valvona & Crolla

Dark berry fruit and violets on the nose. Fresh, dry and juicy palate, good firm finish with earthy fruit and a hint of almonds. Classic Chianti. Drink: 2011-2014. Alc: 13%

Recioto della Valpolicella

Sadly, this is a case of a reverse trend. As Amarone production continues to bulge (the 2010 grape harvest will yield more than 13 million bottles – an increase of about 4.5 million bottles on the average for the previous four years) its alter ego, the sweet Recioto, shrinks in proportion.

The percentage of the grape harvest which producers are allowed to use for dried grape wines is fixed by law, which means they have to decide whether to allot their quota to Amarone or Recioto.

With exports of the former up 40% on last year, there is no contest. Most producers continue to make at least token quantities of Recioto, but the commercial pressures are such that there is a serious risk of Verona’s sumptuous sweet red disappearing off the radar altogether in the future.

If you are one of those wine drinkers who associate rich, raisiny flavours with Christmas pudding rather than beef stew, and therefore with Recioto as opposed to Amarone, this would be a great shame.

It would also be a terrible irony, since the dried grape wines of Valpolicella were, from their Byzantine origins to the modern advent of Amarone, exclusively, lusciously sweet.

Three to try:

Monte dell’Ora, Sant’ Ulderico 2006

N/A UK www.montedallora.com

Rich and complex on the nose, with black cherry, plum and wisteria, newsprint and nutmeg. Pure dense fruit on the palate, with a distinctive raisiny follow through, bursting with flavour. Drink: 2011–2020. Alc: 14.5%

Tommaso, Bussola 2008

£31/500ml (2004) Ballantynes

Intense crushed berry nose with notes of hibiscus and nutmeg. Lovely pure blackberry on the palate, with

juicy acidity and fruity sugars in perfect balance.

Drink: 2011–2015. Alc: 12.5%

Allegrini, Giovanni Allegrini 2007

£22.50–£35/500ml Corks Out, Christopher Piper, Harvey Nichols, Imbibros, Liberty, Philglas & Swiggot, Secret Cellar, Slurp, Valvona & Crolla, Wine Direct, WoodWinters

Black cherry, plum and almond nose, with a hint of vanilla. Smooth, round palate with mellow fruit and lovely freshness to balance a substantial finish. Drink: 2011–2015. Alc: 14

Written by Richard Baudains

Italy’s northwestern zone of Alba is so intrinsically linked with Barolo wines that its winemakers often become transfixed. Now they’re starting to realise there’s more to life than Nebbiolo – Barbera and Dolcetto for a start. RICHARD BAUDAINS takes up the story.

Alba lies in the heart of Piedmont, home to many of Italy’s greatest red wines. It is also responsible for a lot of excellent, lesser known ones besides. Set on the river Tanaro, the town gives its name to a DOC which extends over the whole of the Langhe and Roero hills and includes in its orbit the DOCG zones of Barolo and Barbaresco. The hierarchy is pretty much set in stone. Barolo wines are more than ever the king of Alba wines, not for reasons of divine right, but because it is simply the best and most dynamic denomination. Production is growing (some fear too much and too fast, but that is another issue) but quality has never been so consistent nor the pool of top-class producers so large.

As for winemaking styles, after a decade of hammer-and-tongs discussion about the relative merits of the so-called modern and traditional schools, the two seem to be converging. The modernists and traditionalists have learned from each other over the last 10 years. Winemakers who favour long maceration and ageing in big barrels these days pay a lot more attention to the quality of their tannins and the purity of aromas. Equally, many previously progressive thinkers are retreating from hyper-extracted colours and simplistic fruit towards more authentic terroir character.

The bigger and better Barolo wines get, the more difficult it seems to be for Barbaresco to emerge from the shadow of its illustrious neighbour, which is a great pity. Barbaresco might be a lighter and subtler rendition of Nebbiolo, but this does not make it any less interesting. It has to be said, however, that in comparison with Barolo, overall quality is less consistent. Recent years have added very few new names to the list of consolidated leaders, though producers on the up include Marchesi di Gresy, Cigliuti, Paitin and Bruno Rocca.

There was a time in the late 1990s when it looked as if Nebbiolo was going to progressively oust other traditional varieties from the Langhe. Fortunately producers are rediscovering the value of a diversified production. Barbera d’Alba, with its dark purple shades and intense plummy fruit, is the biggest and fullest flavoured of the many wines made from this widely planted variety. Definitively promoted out of the everyday drinking category, nowadays top producers lavish it with man-hours in the vineyard and new oak in the winery.

Dolcetto could be going the same way. Traditionally it has always been considered an antipasto and first-course wine, bottled early and drunk within the year. This model is being challenged, in particular by the wines from the specialist production area of Dogliani.

This village, on the edge of the Barolo zone, has its own DOC for the variety and the upgrade to DOCG is on the way for its Barolo wines. Bigger and more firmly structured than other Dolcettos, Dogliani wines are often aged in wood. Nicoletta Bocca of San Fereolo defends the style: ‘It is not a question of wanting to ape Nebbiolo, but simply of treating the variety with respect and giving the wine time to offer something else beyond simple fruit.’ In a region where prices are not always easy on the pocket, Dolcettos, whether Alba or Dogliani, can offer outstanding value.

The other new DOCG in the pipeline is the fast-developing area of the Roero. The flag bearer is Arneis, the native white variety of these sandy hills on the right bank of the Tanaro. With production growing and quality steadily improving, this soft and delicate, candied fruit wine is threatening to become the white varietal of the region.

As for the reds, Roero produces (not very helpfully under the Alba DOC) a dry and floral style of Nebbiolo and Barbera which is lighter than the equivalent Barolo wines of the Langhe. Straight Roero is a monovarietal Nebbiolo which could soon be challenging for a place alongside Barolo and Barbaresco.

KEY PLAYERS

Giacomo Conterno, Monforte

Thirty-something Roberto Conterno has taken over the mantle of his father Giovanni without compromising an inch on the philosophy of this historic estate. There may be computer-controlled fermentation tanks in the cellar but the canons of artisan winemaking which Roberto has inherited are respected to the letter. He sees himself as a custodian of tradition, which he defines as ‘the maximum respect for the variety and the terroir’, and is scathing about what he considers the dumbing down of authentic Barolo character. ‘Modern Barolo styles go towards the consumer,’ he says. ‘In the case of traditional wines it is the consumer who has to go towards the wine.’ Conterno’s monumental Barolo Riserva Monfortino was a cult wine long before the term was coined. Made from a severe selection of fruit from old vines at the Cascina Franca property at Serralunga, it is renowned for maceration times of 30–35 days, barrel ageing that lasts at least seven years and a potential for bottle ageing that only the fortunate few have the chance to appreciate.

Angelo Gaja, Barbaresco

The aura of designer exclusivity which surrounds Angelo Gaja makes it easy to lose sight of the fact that besides being a style icon he is also a producer of exceptionally fine wines. His Barbaresco, the only DOCG wine left in the range after the move to IGT labels in 1996, is consistently the top performer in Barbaresco, while the impeccable definition and personality of the Langhe Nebbiolo wines demonstrate that there is no contradiction between barriques and terroir. Sperss is structured, long and grippy with classic Serralunga liquorice at the end; Conteisa is broader, softer and more floral with a delicate vein of sweet fruit in the finish; Sorì San Lorenzo is silky and refined, Sorì Tildin fleshy and robust. Gaja’s wines are horrendously expensive, but if you can afford them, and provided you are not seduced into drinking them before they are ready, it is hard to imagine that they would ever disappoint.

Bruno Giacosa

Bruno Giacosa is a Piedmontese of the old stamp. Taciturn and almost painfully modest, getting a quote out of him is like trying to get a loan from a mafioso. When Signor Giacosa pours his wines for you it is tacitly understood that any comment on your part or his is entirely superfluous. His wines speak for themselves. Stylistically consistent and painstakingly crafted, Giacosa’s Barolo and Barbaresco single-vineyard selections are the pure expression of terroir. His top wines are the eagerly awaited riservas, which he brings out when he judges the vintage to be right. Of the current batch, the Barolo Riserva 2000 Rocche di Falletto has all the warmth and ripeness of the hot summer, while the stunning 2001 Barbaresco Riservas have the elegant aromas and tight concentration of what promises to be a very long-lived vintage. Besides the special-occasion wines, Giacosa also makes delicious, excellent-value versions of basic Langhe and Roero wines from Arneis to Barbera, Dolcetto and Nebbiolo.

Roberto Voerzio, La Morra

Roberto Voerzio practises a form of radical viticulture which makes him one of the true contemporary innovators of the Langhe. He plants Barbera at the unheard-of density of 8,000 units/ha and trains his Nebbiolo vines to produce five bunches and 500 grammes of fruit per plant. Voerzio’s natural habitat is the vineyard. In contrast to the passion with which he speaks about growing grapes, he shows little enthusiasm for discussing the finer points of his winemaking (which is nevertheless absolutely meticulous). He ferments in standard vats and tends towards long maceration. He uses barriques, but for the solely practical reason that, ‘vinifying lots of small parcels separately, you need the flexibility of small barrels’. From micro-plots dotted around the top cru sites of La Morra, Voerzio makes half a dozen single-vineyard Barolos and a cult status Barbera which is bottled exclusively in magnums. Voerzio’s latest project is a super riserva from newly acquired vineyards scheduled for release (‘If it is ready’) in 2013.