Nebbiolo wine in Aosta Valley

To the south, at the entrance of the Valley, the most common and cultivated vine is Nebbiolo, which is called “Pictendro” and is also very famous in Piedmont and Lombardy.

 The first news of this vine comes from 1300, and legend says that its name is derived from “noble” because this vine produces wine which is “generous, strong and sweet” or from “fog” due to the fact it matures in October coinciding with the first autumnal fogs.

Tasting Nebbiolo wines can be quite an arresting experience because the floral and light red fruit aromas suggest the wine is much lighter than it is.

Despite its tannic structure, the wine’s fruity flavours of cherry and raspberries, supported with aromas of rose and anise, always seem to shine through. In cooler years, Nebbiolo gets a bit herbaceous with more sour cranberry fruit, rose hip and leather and red clay minerality.

The wines produced from Nobbiolo are characterised by their lovely ruby red colour which tends to soften depending on the ageing period

Valle d’Aosta’s Nebbiolo wines speak of their mountain heritage. Steely and highly perfumed, they lack the flesh of Barolo and Barbaresco (and unlike those wines, they do not need to be 100% Nebbiolo; they often contain small percentages of other local grapes) but the best examples offer a very refined mouth feel. 

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