Nebbiolo’s Northern Lights: Alto Piemonte & Valtellina

There aren’t too many secrets left anymore in the world of wine. Alto Piemonte and Valtellina are two of them. When we think about Nebbiolo these days Barolo and Barbaresco are often top of mind, but there was a time when the center of Piedmont’s wine universe was in Gattinara and not in the Langhe. Further east, in Lombardy, the terraced vineyards of Valtellina are capable of yielding distinctive Nebbiolos rich with a sense of place.

Over the last decade or so, prices for top-flight Barolo and Barbaresco have risen to the point that many longtime buyers of those wines are increasingly priced out of the market. Fortunately there are other fertile hunting grounds for readers who crave the aromatic nuance, translucence and structure that only Nebbiolo can deliver. Best of all, prices remain quite reasonable in both Alto Piemonte and Valtellina, especially considering that a number of properties release their top selections with a few years of bottle age, which makes them ideal for consumers who appreciate wines with the nuances that can only develop with time.

A landscape view of Gattinara

Alto Piemonte (Upper Piedmont)

Nebbiolo finds a number of distinctive expressions in and around the towns of Novara, Vercelli and Biella in the foothills of the Alps. The morainic soils, rich in iron and other mineral/sedimentary deposits that date back to the Ice Age, along with wide diurnal shifts, produce intensely aromatic, energetic red wines that are capable of aging for decades. Alto Piemonte reds tend to be taut, relatively high in acid and built for the dinner table. So far, climate change seems to have been beneficial in giving these wines a little more depth and early appeal than was the case a generation ago.