![]() These can be some of the best-value examples of Nebbiolo. Nebbiolo is also grown on the rest of the Langhe hills on the right bank of the Tanaro river to be sold as Langhe Nebbiolo or on the sandier soils of Roero on its left bank which produces surprisingly dense wines sold either as Roero or under the name Nebbiolo d'Alba, a larger zone. The Bolla clone, closely related to Lampia, has been abandoned because it was too productive while the Rosé clone is relatively rare because it produces such pale wines and Nebbiolo is anyway not particularly high in colouring matter – another similarity with Pinot Noir.įurther like Pinot Noir, Nebbiolo is extremely sensitive to the soil in which it is planted and tends to make the very finest wine when grown on the calcareous marls around Alba, either to the south-west in the Barolo zone or to the north-west in the smaller, younger Barbaresco zone where slightly lighter, earlier-maturing wines are made. Of the four subvarieties traditionally grown in the Alba area, Lampia is the most popular and reliable, but Michet is more highly valued for the quality and concentration of the wine produced. ![]() And just as Pinot Noir is notoriously unstable genetically, available in many different shades, subvarieties and clones, so is Nebbiolo. Just as there is good evidence that the red burgundy grape has been grown in its homeland for many centuries, there is incontrovertible evidence that Nebbiolo has been grown and valued around Alba since at least the 14th century. There are other parallels with Pinot Noir. Growing Nebbiolo is a question of precision engineering – not least because the vines are naturally vigorous and need extremely strict treatment in the vineyard if they are not to waste all their energy on sprouting leaves rather than ripening fruit. Nebbiolo is popularly thought to take its name from nebbia, Italian for the fogs that characteristically drape these hills in autumn, further restricting any ability to ripen late in the growing season. ![]() Hence the suitability of the slopes of the Langhe hills. Nebbiolo needs particularly careful site selection as it is not only late-ripening but also early flowering, so there is no point in planting it anywhere that might suffer from spring frosts. Less well-favoured sites are planted with Barbera, Dolcetto, or even such incomers as Chardonnay. But the scores of exceptionally gifted and dedicated grower-producers there know that it is worth planting Nebbiolo only on south- or south-west-facing slopes at an altitude somewhere between 250 and 450 m (8 ft) as there is no chance of making decent wine from this late-ripening variety if it is not exposed to maximum sunshine. The Nebbiolo heartland is the tiny Barolo region, a cluster of fog-prone hills around the village of the same name just south-west of the truffle town of Alba, south of Turin. Yet the best of these home-grown products are so uniquely delicious that winemakers all over the world are enticed to give it a try.Įven in its region of origin, Piemonte, Nebbiolo is exceptionally finicky about where it will happily grow and ripen. While the red burgundy grape has been slow to travel happily from its birthplace, and is only just showing signs of settling down in places such as Oregon, Australia, South Africa and cooler parts of California, good Nebbiolo wine is still extremely difficult to find outside its homeland in north-west Italy. ![]() If Pinot Noir is the world's most tantalising grape, Nebbiolo runs it a close second – for very similar reasons.
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