Wine of the day: Alasia Langhe Nebbiolo
The Italian word Piemonte means "foot of the mountain" and that's where one of the world's great wine-producing region finds itself: in the north-western corner of the country, where the Alpine chain separates Italy from France and Switzerland. The region produces some 50 million cases of wine a year, with the best-known appellations being Asti Spumante, Barolo and Barbaresco.
Grapes used in Piemonte include Dolcetto, Barbera, Freisa and Grignolino. Surprisingly, despite its fame, less than three percent of the acreage is given over to the Nebbiolo grape, which is the primary variety used for Barolo, Barbaresco, Boca, Carema, Fara, Ghemme, Roero, and, of course, Nebbiolo d'Alba and Nebbiolo delle Langhe.
Nebbiolo is one of the two great red-wine grapes of Italy. The other is Tuscany's Sangiovese. Its name comes from nebbia, or "fog", because it ripens best and gives its finest wines in places where there is a good deal of morning fog during the harvest. One of those places is the Monferrato hills in the south of the province of Asti and that's where the Araldica co-operative has 2,000 acres of vinyards. In partnership with Martin Shaw, the star Australian winemaker, Araldica bottles Alasia, a wine that exemplifies modern techniques while retaining the characteristic Italian taste of the region's limestone-clay soil.
The bottle we drank was an Alasia Langhe Nebbiolo, 1995. Here are our tasting notes: fine red colour. Good nose with hints of toffee, cherry and fruitcake. Medium-bodied. Hint of sweetness on the palate, pleasantly grapey. Can still improve. Slightly pricey, though, at 10 euros.
