My name is Keith Beavers, and I've said this many times, but I have to keep on saying it.If PSLs are wrong, I don't want to be right.What's going on, wine lovers?From the Vinepair Podcasting Network, this is the Wine 101 Podcast.
My name is Keith Beavers and I'm the Tastings Director of Vinepear.There's a lot of talk about Barolo.There's a lot of talk about Barbaresco.And there's reasons for that.They're amazing.
But there's a place above those wine regions in the same region that are still amazing and we have to talk about it. When I first started researching for this episode, it was gonna be one of my history series on Barolo and Barbaresco.
And I began realizing pretty quickly that because these two wine regions, and this is really wild to even just think about, we've been talking a lot about history this season, but looking at Barolo and Barbaresco, they're kind of modern.
in the sense of history of the world and why and all that.And I realized that the Barolo and Barbaresco episode or two that I've done already pretty much covered all this.Only one thing is changed.
And that is the, there is a discrepancy in research now.There's a debate as to who actually was the person that influenced the aristocracy or aided the aristocracy in creating what we know today as Barolo and eventually Barbaresco in style.
And it's, it's, It's kind of wild because there's this guy named Louis O'Dart who was supposedly this guy who came in, was hired by the people of Barolo.The whole story is in that episode that I talked about, but turns out that
the influence was not necessarily of him, but another guy who was a lieutenant in the army and all this, what I'm trying to say is like, as, as fun as it might be to talk about that, it's not necessarily going to help you as a listener, understand bro Barolo and Barbaresco any more than you will have from listening to those episodes I've done in the past.
So I started thinking, wait a second, Nebbiolo, I remember back in the day when I was doing my restaurant thing, you know, I had wines from all over Italy and I represented every region and every region I tried to represent in full.
And when you're representing a region like Piedmont in full, you don't only have Barolo's, you don't only have Barbaresco's, you also have Lange's, you have all that Southern Piedmontese wine.
You have Barbera d'Alba, Barbera d'Asti, Moscato d'Asti, Barbaresco, Barolo, Lange Nebbiolo, Ornese, you have all of these varieties that you see everywhere.But there's an entire northern part of Piedmont.
And what's interesting about that area is that at one time, it had more Nebbiolo
Under land under vine than the entire lung a region in total today but things happened and deprived these areas of Resources and they kind of fell not to disrepair but just kind of languished until the
system of Appalachians in Italy was formed and eventually got around to awarding these places their DOC or DOCGs in the late 90s.And then another thing happened in 2004, which we'll talk about.
This is what the Oxford wine companion likes to call Alto Piemonte or high or upper Piedmont.And as I started thinking about this, all the memories flooded in. Lesona, Bramaterra, Gatinarra, Gemme.These are wine regions.
in the northern part of Italy that are absolutely amazing.The only problem is not a lot of it's made.
So to enjoy wines from here, which I'm going to get into, you kind of have to go to a market or be lucky enough to be in a market that has these wines.
Like if you're in New York or San Francisco or a large urban environment with a large population and a lot of wine, you're going to find wines from these places.But outside of those markets, it's not always easy, but they are available.
So this is kind of a, an episode to say, Hey guys, there's more to Nebbiolo than just Barolo and Barbaresco in the region of Piedmont.And when I'm done, you get to go out and look for them.
It's not going to be easy, but man, when you find these wines, they are mind blowing and incredible.Okay.Let's talk about Alto Piemonte. In the extreme northern part of Piedmont, up at the Swiss border, there is the Alps.
And one of the peaks there, I think it's the fourth largest peak in all of the Alps, something like that, it's called Monte Rosa.And Monte Rosa has a glacial plain that melts and works its way down, which forms what is called the Sessia River.
It works its way south through the Alpine valley called Valsessia and then through the towns of Varnala Sessia, Onarona, Borgo Sessia, but then it carves its way through these hills through a town called Vircelli.
And then it continues south and eventually dumps into the Po River.This is actually a tributary of the Po River, the longest river in Italy.
But right there in that town, Vercelli, which is on the right bank of the river, on the left bank of the river is a town called Novara. Now each of these towns have very significant hills.
This river has been carving its way through this subalpine area for millions of years and there are these two towns with these hills.And in those hills are vineyards.
In the hills of Vircelli, the Vircelli Hills is what they call it, is a wine region, a DOCG called Gattinara.G-A-T-T-I-N-A-R-A. In the Nevada Hills, because they're called the Nevada Hills, is a DOCG called GEMME.G-H-E-M-M-E.
And in the 16th and 17th centuries, This area for wine was so important that it had been classified by the local people there.Not sure if it was a Dutchie or not.I'm sure it was a Dutchie.I think the Lombards were here too.They're everywhere.
And by the 19th century, this place was so popular.Like I said before, there are more Nebbiolo vines here than there are today of all in the Lange Hills because it was, for some reason it became a very important,
wine producing region for the urban center of Milan.And what's interesting about this is if you listen to the Barolo episode, the Barolo Barbaresco episode, if you think about these dates, like when,
The, this area had the 16th century, the 17th century into the 19th century being thriving and all that.This is quality.This is just a hint.You can kind of see this is like quality focused winemaking for an urban market and its own market.
At that time, the wines of Barolo and Barbaresco were just sweet wines.They weren't even of the quality of what we're talking about here.And Nebbiolo here in this area was not called and is not called Nebbiolo.Here, they call it Spanna, S-P-A-N-N-A.
So you had the town of Novara, Across the river you had the town of Vercelli.Then you had an area just west of Vercelli called Bramaterra, and an area just south of that called Lesona.
This entire area grew the grape Spana, otherwise known as Nebbiolo.They also grew a grape called Vespolina, and a grape called Uvarara, and a grape called Bonarda. but not a lot of us know about these wine regions today.
So something had to happen to compromise the legacy of these places.And I think we can all kind of guess what that is.Phylloxera.
Yeah, Phylloxera came in because if you think about it, Phylloxera comes in sort of the 19th century and that's just when this place was thriving.It wasn't only that, the industrial revolution,
Depleted the population of this area people left to get jobs in an urban environment to make more money and Also, there was a post-world war two depression in this area as well.
So they had to rebuild but By the time they got around to doing all this Barolo and Barbaresco had already captured the market and were moving into
closer and closer to what would be a barique style wine big full-bodied and opulent which was kind of beginning to be the the style of the time and it wasn't until 1997
So 1960s, 1966, around that area, that is when Italy forms its appellation system and starts awarding places these DOCs.And then there was the DOCG and eventually the IGT in 1992. The thing about Piemonte is it doesn't do IGTs.
It only does DOCs and DOCGs.So you would think that the first thing you would get would be a DOC and then you'd be elevated to a DOCG.That is not what happened with what would become Gemme and Gattinara.In 1997, it was obvious that
These areas did not have a lot of land under vine, but they were ancient, they were important, and they wanted to preserve these places.So they awarded each of these places DOCGs straight up from the get.
And the Novara area became known as the Gemme DOCG.And the Vercelli Hills area became known as the Gattinara DOCG, 1997.And then in 2004, a sort of overarching or overreaching DOC was created called Costa di La Sessia.And what that did was
added the Lesona area and the Bramaterra area.So those are now DOCs.So you have Gemme, DOCG, Gattinara, DOCG, Lesona, and Bramaterra, DOC.And here's the kicker, wine lovers.These are tiny wine regions. Gatinarra has 234 acres under vine.
That was in 2011.Now it takes a while for vines to be planted and be workable, so I can't imagine it's much more than that today.And here you can blend Uvarara and Vespulina, two red wine varieties, with Nebbiolo, they call it Spanna,
But today in Gatinarra, majority of the wines are almost, if not 100% Nebbiolo.And this is going to be a theme here.The wines, when you're thinking about Nebbiolo or Spanna from this area, don't think Barolo or Barbaresco.
Think, well, think Barolo Barbaresco with a higher acid and much more perfume.These are beautiful, perfumed, aromatic, high-acid Nebbiolo that require a significant amount of aging.
35 months is the rule for the DOCG in Gattinarra, 47 months for Riserva. That's like, we're not releasing this stuff for a while.It needs time.That's just like, that's significant.
Across the river in the Nevada hills in Gemme, there are only 148 acres of land under vine. Now here, there's a rule.It has to be at least 85% Spana or Nebbiolo.
Then you can blend Uvarrara, you can blend Vespulina, or another variety that's very prevalent actually in the Veneto called Bonarda, also with hefty aging requirements.
So what's really beautiful about these wines is these aging requirements are serious, but the wines are tangy. and full-bodied but with high acid.
It's like taking the acidity level of a Barolo or mostly a Barbaresco, let's say Barbaresco, and just like notching it up a little bit and adding some perfume.It is just beautiful stuff.
And if you think that's tiny, the Lessona DOC has one, six, 16 acres and only three winemakers. three.But there are rules.So those three winemakers, Massimo Clerico, Sela, and Villa Sperino.
And what's interesting is Villa Sperino is a Chianti producer, a very well-known Chianti producer called Isola Elena, who owns an estate in this area and came back to this place to kind of help revitalize it and is doing a great job.
Three winemakers doing a great job, but there are rules.50 to 80% has to be Nebbiolo.They also have a red grape called Croatina, and then there's Uvarara and Vespulina that can be blended with it.Three winemakers deal with these rules.
I mean, it's going to get bigger.It probably will.Maybe it won't.I don't know.I just find that really fascinating.Sorry, I'm going to move on.
And Brahma Terra, to the north of Lesona, has 69 acres of land under vine with very, with an actual, it's an exact replica of blending requirements.
Now, wine lovers, this is a place I can tell you with confidence I've tried almost every single wine available on the American market from these places.
I've had all three Le Sona wines, I've had Bramatera, I've had Gemme, I've had Gattinara, and I must tell you, these wines are special. They can age forever, it is Nebbiolo, but they still retain this sort of tangy awesomeness.
I've had old Gattinara and it's absolutely stunning. And even though there's not a lot of it made, you would think it's very expensive.It's not.It's less expensive than a lot of Barolo and Barbaresco.
Yeah, it's going to be a little bit pricey, but it's nothing compared to some of the most famous, you know, Barolos and Barbarescos out there.And they're very unique in and of themselves.
And they're all made in the same region by the same, well, not the same variety because they can blend, but It's night and day.
Having a Barolo and then having a Gatinarra, 100% Nebbiolo and Gatinarra, they are completely different, but they still have similarities to them.It's absolutely fascinating.
If you get a Barolo and you're able to get a Gemme or a Gatinarra and try them side by side, it's mind-blowing. But the Bonarda and the Uva Rara and the Vespolina are often used to bring a little softer side to the Nebbiolo.
But because of climate change and better vineyard practices and better winemaking practices throughout the years, because once you become a DOC or DOCG, you get to be subsidized and all this stuff and you can start to improve.
Also, there's a lot more investments from outside this area coming into the area. We're seeing that there's not a lot of need for the Bernardo, the Uvarado, and the Vespulina.I mean, there is, but not as much as there once was.
And it seems like those varieties are always going to be there for sort of like the 1% or the 5% or whatever like that.But anyway. These wines are wonderful.They're awesome.
Get your Indiana Jones hat on and go look for them because once you do, you're going to fall in love with them and you're going to take a photo and then you're going to tag vine pair Keith and you're going to show me what you're drinking so I can, I can live through your experience from Instagram.
Okay.Oh, can you do that for me?Okay.Thanks guys. I got two more Nebula things to tell you about, but I'm gonna wait till next week.Cause they're not gathered within this specific area.They're close, but not really.I know it sounds confusing.
Let's talk next week.Vine Pair Keith is my Insta.Rate and review this podcast wherever you get your podcasts from.It really helps get the word out there.And now for some totally awesome credits.
Wine 101 was produced, recorded, and edited by yours truly Keith Beavers at the Vine Pair headquarters in New York City. I want to give a big old shout out to co-founders Adam Teeter and Josh Mallon for creating Vinepair.
And I mean, big shout out to Danielle Grinberg, the art director of Vinepair for creating the most awesome logo for this podcast.Also Darby Seaside for the theme song.Listen to this.
And I want to thank the entire Vinepair staff for helping me learn something new every day.See you next week.
