Piedmont

The famous Piedmont region is incredibly diverse.

Most wine connoisseurs think of Piedmont as Barolo and Barbaresco. No wonder, because since the 1980s these wines have been successful, popular, and many of them rare and sought after worldwide. The success of these two wines has turned the once very poor region into an economically successful one. One hectare of land in a top location has become almost priceless.

With the success of the wineries, an economic factor for the entire region emerged. Jobs at the numerous suppliers, the construction industry - and not to forget - the pleasure tourism is booming. The success story of the Barolo boys around Angelo Gaja and Elio Altare has even been filmed in the meantime.

But Piedmont is big. And few growing regions are as topographically diverse as western northern Italy. That is why the countless other wines are hardly ever mentioned. Wrongly. Because there are excellent wines, both red and white. Erbaluce, Gavi, Grignolino, Timorasso, Arneis, Ruchè, Ghemme, Gattinara, Boca, Freisa, Verduno, Bracchetto, Naschetta ...

The location at the foot of the Alps gives the hilly landscape a warm vegetation period and a long autumn. This climate is particularly favourable for the late ripening Nebbiolo grape. Most of Italy's top wines come from Piedmont, along with Tuscany.

The beginnings of winegrowing in Piedmont go back to the Taurine people - hence the name of the capital Turin - and to the Ligurians. In the north and west, surrounded by the Alps, in the south by the Apennines, the country becomes very hilly towards the east and only gradually towards the plain. The name Piedmont means Pié de Monte, at the foot of the mountains.

The 42,870 hectares of vineyards are cultivated by around 100,000 winegrowers and several winegrowers' cooperatives. Piedmont's vineyards are located in the hills to the north and south of the upper Po Valley - especially near Monferrato, Asti, near Alba, and to the north-west of Novara and Vercelli. It is divided into Piemonte il Monferrato, Piemonte il Nord, Piemonte l'Astigiano and Piemonte le Langhe.

Each area has an individual microclimate and specific soils. The wines from the different areas therefore differ considerably from each other, although the often very small growing areas are close to each other.

Variety also in quality.

Piedmont has the most DOP regions in Italy. 85% of all wines come from the 17 DOCG and 42 DOC regions, which is one of the highest quality rates ever. Similar to Tuscany, Piedmont accounts for just over 5% of total Italian production. The most important wine-growing areas are Asti, Carema, Canavese, Caluso, the Vercelli and Novara mountains and the hills of Monferrato and Langhe near Alba, which are considered to be the best sites in terms of quality.

There are well over a hundred approved grape varieties (in the 19th century there were even just under 400), many of which are autochthonous. The main white wines are Moscato, Arneis, Erbaluce, Cortese, Favorita, and some Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. The most important red wine varieties are Barbera with about 50% of the total area, Dolcetto and Nebbiolo - also called Chiavennasca or Spanna.

In addition, many autochthonous and few international grape varieties: Bonarda Piemontese, Brachetto, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Croatina, Freisa, Grignolino, Grisa Nera, Malvasia di Casorzo, Malvasia di Schierano, Merlot, Neretto, Pelaverga , Ruchè, Syrah, Uva Rara (Bonarda Novarese) Vespolina and many others in small quantities.

The Nebbiolo grape - the old native and only grape variety for Barolo - is cultivated on the calcareous, loamy, weathered soils southwest of the town of Alba in the hilly area of the Langhe. From this, the often powerful and tannin-rich Barolo and the somewhat slimmer, elegant Barbaresco are pressed. Both are still today the "Battle of the Generations" recognizable.

The traditionalists, who insist on long shell contact and ageing in large wooden barrels, and the modernists, who work with shorter maceration and ageing in barriques, exist peacefully side by side today. Fights are at best verbal and joking - in the pub. The differences are certainly to be tasted, but today only a question of what tastes better. The wines of the traditionalists often need a few years until they play out their true elegance, those of the modernists are often accessible earlier, but have long since shown that they last just as long.

The Barbera vine produces very good results in the area of Alba, Asti and Nice. It is considered to be much more productive than the Nebbiolo, has slightly softer tannins, powerful body, but about the same acidity.

The Nebbiolo wines, which come from outside the two famous wine-growing villages of Barolo and Barbaresco and their associated sites, are known as Nebbiolo d‘Alba labels and is often not inferior to the more famous brothers. The Nebbiolo grape is also the basis of other high quality wines from Piedmont: the Gattinara and the Ghemme, as well as from the ancient, somewhat forgotten region in the north: Boca.

Of course, Piedmont is also known as the home of Asti Spumante, made from Moscato grapes. The bright, foaming Asti is very popular in Italy. Whether as still wine, sparkling wine (frizzantino) or sparkling wine (spumante) - the plants are light, sweet and have a seductively grapey character. However, Piedmont is not only famous for its wine production: The region is also the country of origin of wormwood. SUPERIORE.DE