Nebbiolo

Piedmont's pale, perfumed, savagely tannic king.

Nebbiolo is one of the world's great red grapes — pale-colored, intensely tannic, and high in acid, with a paradoxical combination of delicate aromatics (rose, violet, tar, dried cherry, truffle) and fierce structure. Barolo and Barbaresco are the prestige expressions, both requiring extended aging to soften. Outside the Langhe hills of Piedmont, Nebbiolo barely travels — Gattinara and Ghemme to the north are credible, but New World plantings have rarely matched the Italian original. The name comes from nebbia, the autumn fog that blankets the Langhe at harvest.