I’ve always loved Gavi wines, the lovely crisp, dry, mineral Cortese wine from Piemonte in the north-west corner of Italy, so I was really excited about focusing on Piemonte wines at wine club.
To do our research, we visited a wonderful Italian wine specialist shop and wine bar in South Kensington, Vini Italiani. There we were invited to try wines before we bought them, and talked through the huge number of wines from the region.
Because of the wine club budget, we couldn’t try some of the classic fine wines from Piemonte – a beautiful Barolo being the most notable omission. But the ones we did buy were arguably just as good, and certainly more affordable.
We started with a sparkling rose, Madre Natura Rose produced by Teo Costa and made from one of the region’s most famous grapes, Nebbiolo. It’s made using the ‘Charmat-Martinotti’ method, which means the wine goes through its secondary fermentation in stainless steel tanks, rather than in the bottle, and then is bottled under pressure. (In the method Champagnoise, secondary fermentation happens in the bottle.)
Don’t let the label put you off – this is a very drinkable sparkling wine with lots of subtle red fruits. Because it has no sulphites, it is lovely and soft and smooth to drink. It’s not cheap, at £16.50 a bottle, but much cheaper than champagne, and good value for the money.
Next we tried an Arneis – one of the most important indigenous grapes from Piemonte – a Pradvaj Roero Arneis from the producer Malabaila di Canale. This is a very light and delicate wine, with a very light floral aroma (some of us could barely smell anything in the glass) and a slightly almondy aftertaste. I loved it, and have sought out Arneis wines in Italian restaurants since – but I really like lighter wines. It may not be for you if you prefer your wines heavier or oaked. Around £15 a bottle.
Next was a Gavi: La Fornace Gavi di Tassarolo 2011. Grape: 100% Cortese. It was deliciously crisp and aromatic, quite like a Chablis, with flavours of apple and lemon and a bit of honey. One of my favourite wines, and I think really good value (not cheap – but worth the money) at £12.
The red of the evening was the real success. My instinct had been to buy a Barolo, but the budget wouldn’t stretch to it, so we settled for a 2010 Langhe Nebbiolo from producer Silvio Grasso. Nebbiolo is said to take its name from the word ‘nebbia’, meaning fog, after the fog that descends over Piemonte in October, when the grapes are in harvest. Nebbiolo is the red grape that makes Barolo, and you can get amazing quality Nebbiolo wines without paying for the Barolo label. This was one of them. The wine has a brick-red tinge around the top of the wine in the glass, which apparently is one of the identifiers of Nebbiolo. It had a wonderfully earth and fruity smell, and tasted of cherries and strawberries. We all loved it, and when you compare the £18 price tag with what you could pay for a Barolo, it starts to look like great value.
We wanted to finish the evening with a sweet wine, and chose a 2012 sparkling red Birbet Brachetto from the Malabaila family (grape: Brachetto). Birbet means ‘little rogue’ and this wine is apparently drunk on festive days and holidays (and slightly patronisingly known as the ‘women’s wine’ as it’s very low alcohol at only 6%). To me it tasted of sparkling strawberry juice, and was absolutely delicious, if completely unlike anything I’d ever drunk before. If it was cheaper than the £15 we paid for it, I’d buy it more often. The trouble is it’s way too easy to drink and a bottle would disappear very quickly!
Huge thanks to the team at Vini Italini who spent a lot of time talking to us about these wines.
