Piedmont (Piemonte) is a region in North – Western Italy, occupying an honorable place among the best wine areas of the planet.

In Piedmont DOCG zones, more than in any other region of Italy. Among them are such famous names like Barolo, Barbaresco and Barbera d’asti. But though Piedmont is known for its harsh and tannic red wines from Nebbiolo, a resounding success story of recent decades have become his sweet white sparkling Asti Spumante and Moscato d’asti.

Piedmont is situated at the foot of the Western Alps. Actually, the name Piemonte and translates literally as “foot of the mountain”. The Alps surround it from the North and from the West, separating from the French region of Provence.

The Alps and the Apennines played a huge role in the history of the region. They are largely determined by its favorable to winemaking climate. But also for centuries served as protection from external invasion, but at the same time and from the penetration of new achievements oenology, which eventually got here first with the Romans, and then with the advent of the Piedmont of the French.

The implementation and constant updating of foreign winemaking techniques have become one of the factors of advancement of the Piedmont compared to other regions of Italy as part of the viticulture. Obvious role in this was played by the proximity of France.

Red varieties and wines of Piedmont

Piedmont is often described as “Italian Burgundy”, due to the large number of small family farms, and increased attention to quality, sometimes bordering on obsession. That Burgundy means Pinot Noir, the Nebbiolo Piedmont, so. This variety, though not the dominant area of the landings, but definitely makes a decisive contribution to the quality and reputation of local wines.

Nebbiolo is the basis of the four regional DOCG Piedmont: Barolo and Barbaresco, Roero and Gattinara.

Barolo from the prestigious Cannubi vineyard

The wine from Nebbiolo has a characteristic bouquet of “roses and tar” and prominent tannins, which sometimes make wine from this variety impregnable tart, but gives him excellent potential for aging.

On the North and East of Piedmont, Nebbiolo is called spanna and used at least 10 DOCах, including karema, Fara and Nebbiolo d’alba.

Barbera – skinned variety from the hills of Monferrato. This is the workhorse of Piedmont and the leader in the area of vineyards. For a long time it made ordinary wines for everyday consumption but today, a growing number of high-class specimens of this variety.

The best wines of Barbera in Piedmont: Barbera del Monferrato, Barbera d’asti and Barbera d’alba

This wine in typical Italian style: bright, with a distinctive note of fresh cherries in the bouquet, good acidity and moderate complexity.

Thanks to the softer tannins (compared to the wines from Nebbiolo), the wine from Barbera easy to understand and use the first couple of years after the harvest. It gives him a clear head start on the modern wine market, which is ruled by a hurried and impatient consumer. It brought a sort of popularity among buyers, and therefore among winemakers.

Dolcetto is the third red grape variety in Piedmont. Several DOCов dedicated solely to him. Among them are the first places belong to the three Dolcetto d’alba, d Acqui and di Ovada. Despite the fact that dolcetto translates as “small sweet”, the wine made from it is mostly dry, red, with a slight bitterness in the finish.

Dolcetto d Acqui

Unfortunately, the focus of winemakers goes to the vines of Nebbiolo and Barbera, and Dolcetto poor relative, happens, lack of purity and complexity.

Brachetto worth mentioning, if only because of his role in sweet red sparkling wines Brachetto d Acqui (Brachetto d’acqui DOCG).

Sparkling varieties Brachetto

Frazee (Freisa) – local variety, which has found application in a wide range of dry, sweet, sparkling and still wines in the zones of Asti and Chieri (Chieri)

White wines of Piedmont

Although Piedmont is famous for its red wines, here doing a number of worthy styles white.

First and foremost, of course, pet the General public – sparkling super hit Asti Spumante and its a little quieter and a little more sweet neighbor Moscato d’asti – with a hint of nobility.

Not so careless, like a sparkling Asti – Piedmont white wine for connoisseurs: GAVI (Gavi) from Cortese that only here can be revealed and to produce a wine with complex aromatics. But here, he challenges the aromatic arneys.

Arneys not recognized and “promoted” as the aforementioned white, but its popularity is growing due to its exotic delicate aroma. The best examples of the variety hails from malvira Roero (Roero).

Worth mentioning a little-known autochthon erbaluce, in particular, wine Erbaluce di Caluso (Erbaluce di Caluso). The variety has benefited from a fourfold growth in the production of white wine in Piedmont for the past 30 years.

The wine varieties erbaluce

40% of Piedmont wines is a wine DOC and DOCG categories. As the leader of Italian winemaking with him can compete Veneto and Tuscany.

Piedmont managed to find their star class and it does not leave experiments in parallel with the production of wine hits. At least one recognized winery has tried to work with Viognier. Almost a win-win Chardonnay also found a place in many of the local vineyards. And rightly so. Indeed, over time the region will certainly be challenged by other contenders for his crown