RedLead grape in 8
Dolcetto
Also called Ormeasco.
Piedmont's early red, planted on the sites where Nebbiolo would not ripen and picked weeks before it. Deep purple, low acid, soft to moderate tannin, with black cherry and almond and a faintly bitter finish. It is made to drink within a couple of years, which in a region obsessed with aging makes it the wine the growers actually open at lunch. Dogliani and Diano d'Alba make the versions with some ambition.
Worth knowing
The name means little sweet one and the wine is bone dry. It refers to the grape being sweet to eat off the vine. The early harvest was the real point: it cleared the cellar and paid the wages before the long wait for Nebbiolo.
Where it is allowed19 appellations
Piedmont15
- Barbera d'AstiDOCGStill hunting
- Barbera del MonferratoDOCStill hunting
- Barbera del Monferrato SuperioreDOCGStill hunting
- Colli TortonesiDOCStill hunting
- DoglianiDOCGlead grape100%Still hunting
- Dolcetto d'AcquiDOClead grapeStill hunting
- Dolcetto d'AlbaDOClead grapeStill hunting
- Dolcetto d'AstiDOClead grapeStill hunting
- Dolcetto di Diano d'Alba (Diano d'Alba)DOCGlead grape100%Still hunting
- Dolcetto di OvadaDOClead grapeStill hunting
- Dolcetto di Ovada Superiore (Ovada)DOCGlead grapemin 97%Still hunting
- LangheDOCStill hunting
- MonferratoDOCStill hunting
- PiemonteDOCStill hunting
- ValsusaDOCStill hunting