Those of you who love the Nebbiolo grape know that it throws different looks at you. Some have the bright cherry fruit and lifted perfume of Burgundian Pinot Noir. Others are more savory, brooding even, with burlier tannins and darker fruits. Normally, I put the Nebbiolo-based wines of the ‘alto Piemonte’—the more northerly reaches of Italy’s Piedmont region—in that first, more lightweight, category.
But today’s wine, from northern Piedmont’s Ghemme appellation, could easily be mistaken for a Barolo; not just any Barolo, but one from a village like Serralunga d’Alba, known for some of the most structured wines in the zone. Crafted from 100% Nebbiolo and aged for two years in large Slavonian oak casks (the same regimen as Barolo), this wine is just now starting to approach its full height, but it still has more growth ahead of it. It also happens to have crossed my path at exactly the right time—namely, a prolonged late Winter cold spell in Northern California that has me craving warming reds like this one. There isn’t a lot of great Ghemme out there, because there isn’t a lot of Ghemme, period. This is a seriously great one that will stand toe-to-toe with many more-expensive Barolos in your cellar.
And when I say there’s not a lot of Ghemme out there, I’m not kidding: The geographic boundaries of the appellation are quite small, only spanning about 200 hectares of vineyards in total. Ghemme is classified as a DOCG—the “G” standing for garantita, or guaranteed—which is the highest “quality indicator” in the Italian appellation system, reserved usually for appellations with historical (as well as qualitative) significance. Although the Barolo and Barbaresco appellations, both in southeast Piedmont, have become Piedmont’s foremost wine zones, the ‘alto Piemonte’—the area north of the town of Novara, including not just Ghemme but Gattinara, Lessona, Boca, and several others where Nebbiolo is the principal red grape—was once the commercial capital of Piedmontese winemaking. The ravages of phylloxera, combined with the heavy industrialization of Northern Piedmont after the two World Wars, decimated alto Piemonte’s wine culture. Most of its appellations have as many abandoned vineyards as producing ones.
The Ghemme zone occupies a gently sloping ridge following the contours of the Sesia River, a tributary of the Pò that originates in the Alps along the Swiss border. Soils are glacial moraine, strewn with mineral-laden porphyry rock. The Arlunno family farmed vineyards in the area for generations before the foundation of Cantalupo in 1977; since 1981 Alberto Arlunno has helmed the family property, growing its vineyard holdings to 35 hectares.
And while the Ghemme DOCG discipline allows for up to 15% of local varieties such as Vespolina and Uva Rara to be blended with Nebbiolo, Cantalupo’s “Anno Primo” is 100% Nebbiolo aged 24 months in 1,500- and 3,000-liter Slavonian oak vats. That’s effectively the same regimen as Barolo, and it shows: In the glass, it is a trademark Nebbiolo garnet with brick orange at the rim. Aromas of dried black cherry, black currant, dried orange peel, leather, cracked black pepper, and crushed rocks unfold slowly as the wine takes on air. This is a heady wine, like a hibernating bear just waking from its slumber, and still has plenty of life ahead of it. If you open one soon, decant it about an hour before serving at 60-65 degrees in Burgundy stems, ideally alongside something wintry and savory; it’d be fantastic with a beef and mushroom
ragù over pasta, as in the attached recipe. It still has another 10-15 years in the tank, so take as long as you like with the braise. Cheers!
— David Lynch
