Piedmont: Beyond the Usual Suspects

BY ANTONIO GALLONI | MARCH 24, 2020

With its plethora of appellations and indigenous grape varieties, Piedmont is one of the most intriguing regions in Italy. The range and diversity of wines is just breathtaking. Although Barolo and Barbaresco continue to command quite a bit of attention, the reality is most of us can’t afford to drink Barolo or Barbaresco every day. I certainly can’t. But Piedmont has much to offer beyond those famous areas, including so many wines that deliver superb quality for the money. Readers will find plenty of gorgeous, affordable wines in this report.

As the world grapples with COVID-19, we are faced with a new set of realities every day. This crisis is forcing us to slow down and perhaps be a bit more introspective than in the past. To maybe re-think priorities and relationships. In wine, it is easy to get caught up with the latest great vintage or hottest producer. Fine. But there is something – a lot, actually – to be said for wines that are simpler, for lack of a better word, and also accessible economically. Bottles that can be opened without a ton of fanfare, and just enjoyed for the sheer pleasure they provide. This is also the first article we have published on Italian wine since COVID-19 became a pandemic. Our thoughts are with everyone in Italy and around the world during this very challenging period.

It’s an interesting time. Piedmont has never seen so much wealth. The most coveted wines fetch increasingly stratospheric prices. Planted acreage of Nebbiolo for Barolo and Barbaresco continues to creep up as landowners and growers seek to capitalize on these trends. Once a highly diversified, multi-crop region, Piedmont, especially the Langhe, has become a mono-culture area dominated by wine and Nebbiolo. The same thing happened in Napa Valley, where Cabernet Sauvignon displaced a range of other varieties that were once widely planted. The economics of the wine business can be vicious.

A collection of wines from some of Piedmont’s most prestigious estates.

Dolcetto, in every appellation, remains a very hard sell. For some reason, these wines really struggle finding traction in the marketplace. As a result, there is a trend for growers to rip out Dolcetto and replant with Nebbiolo. Readers will find this hard to believe, but in the 1950s, there was no difference in land price between a hectare of vineyards in the Langhe planted to Dolcetto and a hectare planted to Nebbiolo for Barolo. I remember Maria Teresa Mascarello telling me her father traded a hectare of his Dolcetto for another grower’s same-size parcel of Nebbiolo, on even terms. It seems that grower wanted his two Dolcetto parcels to be contiguous for ease of work, so Mascarello made what ended up being a tremendous deal.