After two press tours in a row last weekend and early this week – to Alto Adige and Piemonte -, I am feeling a bit tired and under the weather today.
I probably overdid it a bit with 6 days away. Though I feel better and better, I am still working on getting back in shape physically.
I am writing to you from the couch, binge-watching old Blue Bloods episodes and reflecting on all the impressions from the trip, still fresh in my mind.
Alto Adige and northern Piemonte are two mountain regions. Last week, I wrote about the special feeling of the Dolomites and “how wine is connected to a place, its landscape, culture, history, and traditions.”
The mountains in the northernmost part of Piemonte, close to Domodossola and the Swiss border – Valli Ossolane Doc – give a special sense of place too. The mountain landscape is darker yet colourful, more forest-like, and gives off a different feeling.
The Prunent wines (a clone of Nebbiolo) in this area feel deeply connected to the territory. When I tasted the Prunent wines, it almost felt like I could sense and touch the local flora and fauna.
Read more about wine in Piemonte in a previous article: Community and Fresh Perspectives Becomes Fundamental for Barolo Serralunga d’Alba
Until the mid- to end-19th century, there were approximately 1000 ha of cultivated vineyard, distributed on terraces in the Ossolane mountains. After that, it shrank to about 40 ha in the 20th century due to industrialisation in the area. People went to work in the factories to earn money. The primary industries were, and are still, chemical, steel, and hydropower.
Traditionally, most households owned a piece of vineyard to make wine for themselves. However, it was hard to make a living as a vine grower and farmer because the vineyard plots are fragmented, small, and scattered across the mountains. It is heroic viticulture at its finest.
Today, many families still own a vineyard plot, and many of them are reluctant to sell. So, in fact, the wineries we visited rent a large part of the vineyard plots they cultivate or buy grapes from smaller growers. Garrone winery, for example, cultivates 11 hectares, of which 3 hectares are their own and 8 hectares are rented.
Two Wines For Thanksgiving
Colli Novaresi Doc Bianco 2023, Erbaluce, Cantina La Smeralda
Fresh, floral, maquis, lightly citrus, aromatic herbs, field herbs, good drinkability
Prunent Valli Ossolane Doc Nebbiolo 2022, Ca Da L’Era Winery
Beautiful red fruit, herbal, spices, pepper, elegant, complex. This Valle Ossolane Doc wine showed a side of Nebbiolo – the Prunent clone – combining freshness, elegance, complexity, and drinkability.
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