 You will be hard-pressed to eat better in Italy—in the world, maybe—than in the region of Piedmont. Piedmont, meaning “foot of the mountain,” lies in the northwestern corner of Italy, bordering France to the west and Switzerland to the north. It is enclosed on three sides by the Apennines and the Alps, and the cuisine here reflects its Alpine climate and proximity to France. Although the costal tourist destination of Cinque Terre lies just an hour from Gavi, the cuisine of Piedmont is decidedly mountainous rather than Mediterranean. In a typical Piemontese osteria, butter, eggy pastas, rice, and red meat are cooked with such honed and loving skill that you might wish you’d eaten here instead of your last Michelin-starred experience.
Such exalted cuisine requires equally glorious wine, and Piedmont produces more DOC/DOCG classified bottles than any other region in Italy. Barolo and Barbaresco are the best-known wines of Piedmont. These highly collectible and highly sought-after long-lived reds are the product of the calcareous strewn hills of the Langhe, and the grapes seem perfectly content in the environs of northeast Italy. Nebbiolo, named for the morning fog of the region called “la nebbia,” gives such a beguiling aroma and satisfying structure that its most avid admirers are the wine world’s most passionate fanatics.
While Nebbiolo excels on the “sorì” (south-facing slopes) and “bric” (the crest of the hills) of the Langhe to produce highly tannic and long-lived wines, the prodigious Piemontese eaters are require a wine of greater immediacy. The early ripening Dolcetto, meaning “little sweet one,” fills this void. Dolcetto gives juicy, fruity, early-drinking wines that are lower in acidity. Barbera, Piedmont’s most-planted red grape, has much higher acidity and far less tannin and can be simple or crafted into a wine of great refinement. Other lesser indigenous red grapes of Piedmont include Brachetto, Grignolino, Ruchè, Croatina, Vespolina, and Freisa.
But Piemontese winegrowing extends beyond the Langhe in the provinces of Asti, Alessandria, and Cuneo. Moscato Bianco is Piedmont’s most-planted grape and results in an off-dry fizzy wine, a specialty of the Asti appellation. The town of Gavi and its surrounding area produces a highly unusual Piedmont wine from the Cortese grape, highly unusual in that Gavi and Cortese di Gavi are white wines, although the traditional market was nearby Genoa on the coast. Arneis, Erbaluce, and Favorita round out the most commonly found Piemontese whites.
Roero sits on the northwestern bank of the Tanaro River, opposite Barolo and Barbaresco, to produce quality Nebbiolo and Arneis in its sandy soils. Gattinara, Ghemme, and Carema produce especially aromatic Nebbiolo-based reds from their pre-Alpine climes. Finally, a handful producers in Piedmont produce top-quality dry sparkling wine, often from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, making Piedmont Italy’s most diverse and quality-minded wine producing region in all of Italy.
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