When wine lovers say they love Piemonte, nine times out of ten they are talking about Barolo and Barbaresco. The well-informed might mention the Langhe, the area around the two world-famous Nebbiolo denominations. This is entirely understandable given the exceptional quality of the wines from those two denominations. But it is a bit like saying you love the wines of France because you love Bordeaux, while ignoring Burgundy, the Rhône, Alsace, Champagne, the Loire and more. As I sought to show in The Wines of Piemonte, there is so much to enjoy beyond the Langhe: great Barbera in Monferrato, outstanding Timorasso in the Colli Tortonesi, sparkling wines, whether traditional or tank method, and more. Northern Piemonte, with great wines made with Nebbiolo and the remarkable white grape variety Erbaluce, should be on every wine lover’s radar. 

Rise, fall and revival of Alto Piemonte

In the nineteenth century, what we now call Alto Piemonte, 150 kilometres north of Barolo, was far more important than the Langhe. Estimates suggest there were up to 40,000 hectares of vineyard on the hills around Gattinara and Ghemme, nearly as many as there are in the whole of Piemonte today. The area benefited from proximity to Milan and Turin, and to the passes through the Alps to France and Switzerland. Count Cavour, a leading figure in the movement for Italian unification, writing a letter to a lawyer in 1845, stated that the wines of Sizzano and the hills of Novara could compete with those of Clos Vougeot and Romanet (sic) in Burgundy. Then powdery and downy mildew, and phylloxera, struck at the end of the nineteenth century, and many vineyards were destroyed by hail in 1904. Two world wars and mass migration from the countryside to the cities for work led to the large-scale abandonment of vineyards. 

Today, Northern Piemonte is recovering some of its former glory. The 1960s saw the creation of the first DOCs, with DOCG status being attained by Gattinara (1990) and Ghemme (1997). Wineries such as Travaglini and Antoniolo in Gattinara, Proprietà Sperino in Lessona and Le Piane in Boca have created a reputation for high-quality wines sold in export markets. In 2018, Roberto Conterno of Giacomo Conterno, the renowned Barolo producer, bought Nervi in Gattinara. He built a brand new and grand winery, a signal of the potential of the area as a whole. Today, the hectares under vine are around 770, of which 550 are for DOC(G) wines: small but high quality. For comparison, Barbaresco is just under 700 hectares and its wines are celebrated around the world.

Northern Piemonte = Alto Piemonte + Carema + Canavese + Caluso

Northern Piemonte is not just the group of denominations known as Alto Piemonte. Forty kilometres to the west is the city of Ivrea, which lies between the three wine denominations of Carema to the north and Canavese and Caluso to the south. Carema DOC is a very special but tiny area producing Nebbiolo wines of real distinction on a rocky amphitheatre, just before you leave Piemonte for the Valle d’Aosta. Erbaluce di Caluso DOCG is the centre of the denomination devoted to the white variety Erbaluce, which makes remarkable still, sparkling and sweet wines. Surrounding Caluso is the wider denomination, Canavese DOC. Thus, Northern Piemonte comprises Alto Piemonte, Carema, Caluso and Canavese.

All of these denominations lie within the 45º latitude (Domodossola is the outlier at 46º), at elevations that range from 300 to 600m. Just as significantly, they all benefit from cooling influences from the Alps, which rise directly to the north. While these are not Alpine denominations as such, the Alps protect the area from the worst of the weather from the north and, critically, cool it: mountain air descends at night to reduce the temperature and promotes a helpful diurnal range that is a key factor in high-quality Nebbiolo. The average growing-season temperature of Ghemme is one whole degree of centigrade cooler than La Morra in Barolo. As the climate continues to warm, this will be an increasingly significant difference. 

Why Northern Piemonte?

This is not the place for a complete analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of Northern Piemonte as a wine region. However, it has considerable advantages and some challenges.

Advantages:

• Large areas of land that were vineyards are now wooded. These could be recovered. By contrast, the Langhe is fully planted except for the higher sites in Alta Langa.
• Relatively inexpensive land prices for good hillside sites. By contrast, land prices in Barolo and Barbaresco have rocketed.
• A remarkable range of soil types across the area leads to a range of expressions from the same grape varieties: volcanic soils in Boca, Bramaterra and Gattinara; a mixture of alluvial and glacial soils in Ghemme; marine sand in Lessona; sand and pebbles with clay and silt in the morainic hills of Caluso; and shallow sandy soils over rock of metamorphic origin in Carema.
• A long tradition of growing the Nebbiolo and Erbaluce varieties.
• Numerous new young dynamic producers who are leading the renaissance.
• Nebbiolo is a well-known grape variety with high-quality potential.
• In a world that is increasingly drinking white wine, Erbaluce has outstanding quality potential, even if it is currently not well known.
• A cooler, fresher climate than the Langhe.
• Prices are generally lower for consumers than for wines from the Langhe. One estimate is that Gattinara or Ghemme is on average 15–30 per cent cheaper than Barolo or Barbaresco, while lesser-known denominations would be cheaper yet. 

Challenges:

• Lower name recognition than the denominations in the Langhe.
• With a few exceptions, tiny wineries with up to five hectares of vineyard each. This reduces the possibilities for promoting the wines and limits the amount of technical expertise in the vineyards and the wineries.
• There are multiple small denominations, each with a limited number of hectares. In Alto Piemonte, there are 10 denominations–that’s 10 names to learn–for a vineyard area that is a quarter the size of Barolo. This again makes promotion more difficult. On the upside, the Alto Piemonte Nebbiolo consortium does a good job of promoting the entire region. However, its budget is minimal, reflecting the number of hectares under vine.

In summary, Northern Piemonte offers high-quality wines made with great grape varieties in a range of expressions at a reasonable price. There is undoubtedly a learning curve for the wine buyer, but there is also so much untapped potential.