Mountain Nebbiolo - Heroic Vitculture
- adrianlatimer61
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Pilgrims used to walk this route centuries ago, with a stick and sack over their shoulder and I guess the simplest of leather sandals. Now I follow the nice new road signs with an ap on my i-phone, state of the art hiking boots and breathable clothes. The scenery is the same but I guess the Francigena from Canterbury Cathedral to St Peter’s in Rome has changed a bit. If you enjoy walking in glorious countryside plus all the food, wine and history (not to mention art) that Italy has to offer, it’s a lovely way to spend time and keep fit.
And up here you do need a modicum of fitness. ‘Heroic viticulture’ is, for once, not just a cheap marketing ploy. Your calf muscles will attest to that. It’s steep, rocky, and the weather unpredictable and unfriendly – at both extremes.
To put things in their proper historical context, in 990 Archbishop Sigeric walked from Rome and Canterbury on his way back from receiving the Pallium from the Pope. he described the 79 stages of his itinerary towards Canterbury in a journal. Of course, there was no Anglican church in England at the time nor Nebbiolo vines in the Val d’Aosta or Piedmont either.
My favourite mountain Nebbiolos are the Chiavennasca wines (Nebbiolo) of Valtellina, but I’ve posted about those before. In Val d’Aosta the wines are I think rather more rustic, a little lean and with a specific herbal side to them. They are also a good deal cheaper. I think the capital is Donnas, also a great place to start your walk, though if you stay in Bard you can see, or indeed sleep in, the scarily grim looking fort that blocked Napoleon for months and enjoy the ancient village streets beneath it. You can eat (and sleep too) at Ad Gallias which has a good restaurant and wine shop which stocks, guess what, the best of Valtallina – the wines of Ar.Pe.Pe.
Donnas marks almost the limit of Val d’Aosta and after Pont St Martin with its thousand-year-old Roman archway and bridge, you enter (Alto) Piemonte and the better known Nebbiolo vines of Carema. To be correct, the Val, which is sandwiched between Piemonte and France and where you can speak both languages, gave its name ‘picot tendre’ (soft berry) to Picotener which is the local biotype of Nebbiolo. It can survive well in the extreme Alpine climate of Aosta and Alto Piemonte and gives a deeply coloured red-purple wine. According to expert Ian d’Agata it was also mentioned by Francisco della Chiesa (bishop and count) in 1635 at Donasio (now Donnas) so maybe the pilgrims could grab a glass of sustenance for their body after all, if not for their mortal soul.
These are vertiginous slopes and terraces hewn out of them, and the Carema vineyards are very structured with their murajes, indeed you can walk alongside and underneath what look like concrete pillars that support the pergolas that support the vines.
I suspect that just like Valtellina, global warming here is still largely a positive force. I can remember in my youth drinking Carema (Barolo/Barbaresco were way too expensive even back then) and it was fairly rough and tough, doubtless lacking a little ripening sunshine. I’ve not drunk the Ferrando white label Carema, which I think is the best-known example, and it’s not that easy to find an enoteca that sells the local produce.
In the Ad Gallias shop when I asked for the best Aosta wine and then cheekily enquired if they had any Carema, I was met with an exaggeratedly Italian waving of the arms and utterly dismissive humph. Poof, they are Piemontese, who would want to drink them? I had somewhat expected such a response, all be it the same grape and just 10 kilometres down the road, but was surprised when paying when he handed me what turned out to be rather an expensive (70 euro) bottle of Carema as a gift.
I served the pair to friends and sadly was not able to pay sufficient attention, but both were very nicely aromatic, the palate a bit leaner than the Langhe wines, and with that distinct herbal taste. The Carema was the more serious of the two (price and quality) and had an impressively perfumed nose, though the tannins were still there and perhaps a bit rustic, or maybe 2020 just needed a while more time.
Either way, this is viticoltura eroica and a beautiful place to sample alternative and less wallet-straining Nebbiolo.
Postscript - ‘The Wine in My Glass’
‘Loving this wine memoir from Adrian Latimer. A must for those who love great stories and writing, albeit primarily about wine. And it’s all in a good cause. All profits go to the Vendanges Solidaires association which helps winemakers who are suffering due to extreme weather conditions…’
Hermione Ireland, Managing Director Academie du Vin Library
After some encouragement and a fair few blog posts, I published (Sept 2025) a book about my travels in the wine world - the people, places and, of course, wines. I am not a professional, so everything I say is objective and unbiased (so I can criticise when other journalists do not dare to do so for instance) and any profits will go to the Vendanges Solidaires association which was set up in 2016 to help winemakers who are in trouble after suffering the extreme weather conditions (frost, hail, fire, flood etc) which sadly are becoming ever more frequent: www.vendangessolidaires.com.
The book ranges from California to Sicily, via Salta, Jujuy and Patagonia in Argentina, Valtellina, Piemonte and Tuscany in Italy, Madeira and of course all over France (Burgundy, Chablis, Sancerre, Beaujolais, Bordeaux, the Rhone).
If you have found any pleasure and/or interest in this blog, I think you might enjoy it, especially as it has been brilliantly illustrated by Arabella Langlands-Perry who managed to juggle bringing up two young kids, helping run Maceo/Willi’s Wine Bar in Paris and producing artwork with an abundance of both talent and wit. Brava.
‘The Wine in My Glass – Tales of Wines, Winemakers and Places’
Published by The Medlar Press Limited, Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, autumn 2025. www.medlarpress.com
Available from Medlar in UK, and/or from me in France or Willis Wine Bar in Paris.
Price UK Pounds 26 from Medlar or 35 Euros. All profits to charity.
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