The place#
The Langhe are the hills south of Alba, in Piedmont, north-west Italy, rising from the Tanaro valley, 172 metres at Alba, toward the Ligurian Apennines. Alba is the market town and my base. Barolo lies to the south-west, Barbaresco to the north-east, each 10 to 15 kilometres away, and on a clear November morning the snow line of the Alps stands along the whole northern horizon.
The Barolo zone covers eleven communes; for a visitor the ones that matter are Barolo itself, with its castle and the WiMu wine museum, La Morra, whose belvedere looks over almost the whole zone, Monforte d’Alba, Castiglione Falletto and Serralunga d’Alba, with a castle like a chess piece. The Barbaresco zone is smaller: Barbaresco, Neive, Treiso and the hamlet of San Rocco Seno d’Elvio.
The vineyard landscape of Langhe, Roero and Monferrato has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2014. It deserves it, but what I like is that it still works: tractors on the ridge roads, hazelnut groves between the crus, tajarin on every menu. It is the corner of Italy I return to most often.
Terroir: marl, sandstone and fog#
Barolo’s vineyards lie between roughly 200 and 500 metres; Barbaresco’s are lower and warmer, 150 to 400 metres, closer to the moderating Tanaro. Among the highest Barolo crus is Bricco delle Viole above Vergne, at 400 to 480 metres.
The soils split the Barolo zone in two, and you can taste it. West, around La Morra and Barolo village, the Tortonian marls of Sant’Agata Fossili are bluish-grey, calcareous and relatively fertile; Nebbiolo from here is perfumed and opens earlier, with softer tannin. East, Serralunga, Monforte and Castiglione Falletto sit on older Serravallian formations, Lequio marl and sandstone and Diano sandstone: poorer soils, firmer and slower wines that want a decade.
The climate is continental: hot summers, a real hail risk, and autumn fog that sits in the valleys until late morning. Nebbiolo ripens in the first half of October, and the traditional account names it for that fog, nebbia. I would not put money on the etymology, but I have stood in a Serralunga vineyard at nine unable to see the next row, and by eleven the sun was on the grapes.
Nebbiolo, Barbera and Dolcetto#
Nebbiolo is the reason the world knows these hills. Pale garnet even when young, with rose, tar, sour cherry and dried herbs on the nose, then high acid and a wall of fine, drying tannin. Barolo DOCG must age 38 months before release, 18 of them in wood; Barbaresco DOCG 26 months, 9 in wood. The crus have been official since 2007 in Barbaresco and 2010 in Barolo, the MGA on the label; Barolo alone has 181. Langhe Nebbiolo is the younger cousin.
Barbera is the everyday red: deep colour, bright acid, low tannin, black cherry and plum; Barbera d’Alba belongs with plin and tajarin in ragù. Dolcetto, the early-ripening “little sweet one”, makes a dry, soft, bitter-almond wine for the antipasto course; Dogliani, just south, has its own DOCG for it.
There are whites, too: Arneis from Roero, pear-scented and gentle; Moscato d’Asti, frothy and low in alcohol, the right thing with bonet, the chocolate and amaretto pudding; and Alta Langa DOCG, traditional-method sparkling from the high hills, my aperitivo when the group needs waking up.
The modernist against traditionalist argument of the 1980s and 90s, barriques against large old botti, has mostly faded; nearly everyone uses large wood again for Nebbiolo. Natural wine in the movement sense is a small presence here; the real split is patience, and I write about such choices in what I pour.
Producers to know#
G.D. Vajra sits in Vergne, the highest hamlet of the Barolo commune. Aldo Vaira founded the estate in 1972 and named it for his father Giuseppe Domenico, in the old spelling of the family name; his children Giuseppe, Francesca and Isidoro now divide winemaking, hospitality and vineyards between them. Classic and patient: long gentle macerations, large Slavonian botti, organic practices in the vineyard. Barolo Bricco delle Viole, from vines planted in 1949 at 400 to 480 metres, is the flagship: floral, red-fruited, fine. The stained glass in the cellar, by the Franciscan friar Padre Costantino Ruggeri, is there so the people who work below it see something beautiful every day. Visits are by appointment, often with a family member.
Roagna is in Località Paglieri, Barbaresco, with a second cellar and vines at Castiglione Falletto; the family has made dry wine here since 1880. Alfredo Roagna and his son Luca farm about 15 hectares, half Barbaresco and half Barolo: permanent grass cover, no herbicides, woods left around the vines, massal selection from very old plants. The cellar is as slow as the farming: submerged-cap macerations of 60 to 70 days, about five years in large old botti, wild yeasts, no outside oenologist. Barbaresco Pajé, Asili and Montefico, Barolo Pira and Rocche di Castiglione: pale, perfumed, savoury, long, released years after the harvest. Visits are by appointment, and I arrange them well ahead.
The names you will hear in every conversation: Bartolo Mascarello and Giuseppe Rinaldi in Barolo village, Giacomo Conterno in Monforte, Bruno Giacosa in Neive, Gaja in Barbaresco, G.B. Burlotto in Verduno, and the Produttori del Barbaresco, the cooperative refounded in 1958, with nine Riserva crus, the best classroom in the zone for tasting one grape across neighbouring hills. Not all of them receive visitors, and I say so before we go.
What a day here looks like on tour#
We sleep in or near Alba, so the day starts with coffee in the piazza and a short drive. The first cellar is at 10:00: four to six wines with a family member, Langhe Nebbiolo before Barolo so the grape is clear before the cru. After a Serralunga or Monforte cellar I put a La Morra Barolo beside it later in the day. Soil talks better than I do.
Lunch is a trattoria: carne cruda, vitello tonnato, tajarin with butter, agnolotti del plin, brasato al Barolo if anyone has room; Dolcetto with the antipasti, Barbera d’Alba after. In white truffle season, 21 September to 31 January by law and best from late October to December, the tajarin arrive plain, a man with a truffle and a shaver comes to the table, and the group goes quiet.
The afternoon is a walk between crus, La Morra’s belvedere or the ridge up to Barolo’s castle, then a second cellar around 16:00. On Saturdays in October and November we begin instead at Alba’s truffle market, which runs on weekends from early October into December. Dinner is late, as everywhere in Piedmont, and I keep the Moscato for the bonet.
Practical#
Alba is 80 kilometres from Turin’s airport, about 1 h 10 by car; Milan Malpensa is 170 kilometres, around 2 hours. Inside the zone nothing is far: Alba to Barbaresco 10 kilometres, 15 minutes; to Barolo and La Morra 15 kilometres, 20 minutes; to Monforte 20 kilometres, 25 minutes. Alba’s old centre is a ZTL camera zone, so we park outside and walk, and cash is still useful in the smaller cellars.
Best months: late September to mid-November for the harvest and the truffles, when the vineyards turn red and gold; May to June for green hills and quieter cellars. August is hot and many cellars close; January and February are foggy and still. Cellar visits are by appointment everywhere; I explain what to expect in visiting a winemaker.
The Langhe are the whole of my Piedmont tour, based in Alba throughout. To build your own week around the truffle fair or a single estate, ask me about a private tour.
