Alpine Soul: Exploring Alto Piemonte & Canavese

BY ANTONIO GALLONI | FEBRUARY 27, 2025

I continue to be deeply impressed with the wines of Alto Piemonte and Canavese. Each year, I taste more wines from these appellations, a testament to a vibrant scene that continues to grow. Readers in search of wines that speak to the essence of site, variety and vintage, all delivered with cool-climate vibrancy, will find all that and more in this patchwork of small appellations in Northern Italy.

Some of the many highlights in my tastings of wines from Alto Piemonte and Canavese.

Some Background

This report covers wines from Alto Piemonte and Canavese, two regions that are inextricably linked by soils, climate and grape varieties but separated for administrative and political reasons. Alto Piemonte includes towns in the provinces of Vercelli and Novara, both of which have traditionally been linked to Milan. Canavese and its main town, Ivrea, are in the province of Torino. Biella straddles Alto Piemonte and Canavese, thus forming a link between the two regions.

Alto Piemonte and its appellations (Lessona, Bramaterra, Gattinara, Fara, Sizzano, Ghemme and Boca) spans approximately 670 hectares (1655 acres) of vineyards. To put that figure into perspective, Alto Piemonte is about one-third the size of Barolo and smaller than Barbaresco in terms of planted hectares. Canavese encompasses about 425 hectares (1,050 acres) of vineyards. Its most prestigious appellations are Carema and Erbaluce di Caluso, which lie near Alto Piemonte. Carema, at the very north of Canavese, has seen a noticeable increase in activity in recent years yet encompasses only about 20 hectares (50 acres) of vines, a surface area that could fit entirely within the Monvigliero cru in Barolo, with room to spare.

Following a period of neglect and abandon in the vineyards, Alto Piemonte and Canavese are now hotbeds of activity. Conterno-Nervi has become the most important and visible producer in Alto Piemonte. Roberto Conterno’s significant investments and total obsession with quality are hardly news. More importantly for the region, however, is that his wines are now seen in the best shops and on the lists of the finest restaurants all over the world, places where Gattinara and Alto Piemonte scarcely had a presence before. I have seen the Conterno-Nervi wines recently in restaurants such as the Polo Bar in New York City and the private club Oswald’s in London, where the straight Gattinara is currently offered by the glass.

In Carema, American importer Neal Rosenthal acquired Ferrando in 2023, the estate he has represented since 1980. That’s a strong endorsement from one of the best palates in the business. Young producers continue to bring their energy and ambition, rounding out what has become an extremely spirited community.

Challenges remain, however. Alto Piemonte and Canavese have their own producer consortiums. Historically, producers in Canavese have not been willing to share the Erbaluce variety in name with Alto Piemonte. That remains a major point of division. Another challenge is that Alto Piemonte and Canavese are large regions by total surface area, but with a relatively small percentage of vineyards, especially compared with areas to the south, such as Barolo and Barbaresco. From the practical standpoint of the wine lover, consumer and the wine trade, Alto Piemonte and Canavese should probably be one region with smaller nested appellations. Especially in today’s world of over-information and wine saturation, appellations need to have both a critical mass and a number of top producers in order to have visibility with both the wine-buying public and the trade, but there is also a natural tension with the understandable desire to have small, well-defined regions and appellations. Winemakers also benefit from being surrounded by other similarly-minded, quality-driven producers, and that is sometimes lacking here. Admittedly, these are not easy problems to solve.