It's always best to have a glass in hand as you read our varietal guides... and for this one you might want two, because we're covering a pair. Here's where to find them in our range: Cecilia Monte's Barbera d'Alba "Maria Teresa" and Cagliero's Dolcetto d'Alba "Nonna Marcellina".
Nebbiolo is the undisputed king of Piedmont, the grape that is used for every bottle of Barolo and Barbaresco. But it isn't the only red worth knowing in the Langhe region. Barbera and Dolcetto are the "other" grapes of the region, the ones locals actually drink with lunch, and the story of where they get planted is one of the more interesting in Italian wine.
It all comes down to the fog
Nebbiolo takes its name from nebbia, the Italian word for fog. It's a fitting name, because Nebbiolo is the last of the Langhe's reds to ripen, hanging on the vine deep into October, by which point a thick fog rolls in and settles into the valleys most mornings.
That late ripening is the whole reason Barbera and Dolcetto end up where they do. Nebbiolo is a fussy grape: it buds early, so it hates sites that are prone to frost, and it ripens late, so it needs every last hour of autumn sun. To ensure it ripens, growers give it the best mid-slope plots facing south or south-west that sit above the fog line once the mist has pooled in the lower valleys. In Barolo and Barbaresco those plots are some of the most expensive soil on the planet, and the DOCG rules only allow 100% Nebbiolo into the bottles with Barolo and Barbaresco on the label. A Barbera or Dolcetto grown in the same dirt can't be sold as Barolo or Barbaresco, which command the highest prices in Italian wine, no matter how good they are. So the financial reality dictates that the prime real estate goes to Nebbiolo, and the other two grapes have to find a home somewhere else on the hill.
This is where ripening order makes the decision clear for growers. Dolcetto ripens first, sometimes a month ahead of Nebbiolo, so it can sit on the cooler, higher, north-facing corners that would never get the Nebbiolo perfectly ripe. Barbera is the middle child: it ripens a week or two after Dolcetto but well before Nebbiolo, and it holds on to its acidity even in a warm spot, so it tends to end up planted below the Nebb where it is warmer. In some vintages, growers have picked and finished fermenting both their Barbera and their Dolcetto before the Nebbiolo is even off the vine.
So when you see all three grapes laid out across a single estate, you're really looking at something like a map of sunlight. Nebbiolo on the prized south-facing slopes, Barbera on the decent but not quite perfect ground lower than Nebbiolo, while Dolcetto is tucked into the cool north-facing slopes.
This typical setup is exactly what makes the wines we carry made from these varieties a little unusual. But first, the grapes themselves.
Barbera
Barbera is the workhorse of Piedmont. It has been the most widely planted red in the region for some time, and it's the grape that fills the everyday carafe: deeply coloured, low in tannin, and built on a backbone of bright acidity. In careless hands it makes thin, tart, forgettable wine, the kind you get in a jug at a local pizzeria.
But that acidity is also the secret to Barbera at its best. It's what makes the grape such a brilliant partner for rich Piemontese cuisine, cutting clean through butter, fat and slow-cooked meat. And it gives the more ambitious examples the freshness to carry rich fruit, body and time in oak without turning heavy. There are really two Barberas out there: the juicy, drink it young version, and the structured, age-worthy version that can stand near the region's best. They share a grape variety and not much else.
Happily for us new world wine drinkers, the variety does usually appear on the label. In Piedmont, you will typically find them labelled as Barbera d'Asti, or Barbera d'Alba. Typically Barbera d'Asti, grown to the north east of the Langhe is lighter in colour and more fruit forward. It can also be blended with up to 10% of other local varieties (Freisa, Grignolino, or Dolcetto). Barbera d'Alba on the other hand, often grown on the same hills as the Nebbiolo that produces Barolo and Barbaresco, is darker and denser, with fruit flavours leaning toward black cherries and blackberries. It can have up to 15% of Nebbiolo in the blend, but no other grapes are allowed. It tends to see more time in oak than its Asti sibling.
Cecilia Monte's Barbera is a single varietal Barbera d'Alba and it is firmly in the structured, age-worthy camp. Cecilia grows it on the hill of Serracapelli, the same hill where she grows her flagship Barbarescos, from vines that are around fifty years old. And per the sunshine map described earlier, the Barbera and Dolcetto are planted on the north-east slopes, with the Nebbiolo to the south-west. She names the wine "Maria Teresa", after her mother, and describes it as untameable, "a Barbera without compromise, where power and light blend and balance out". The 2022 is inky and powerful, with 15.5% alcohol that you somehow don't notice under the wall of ripe black fruit, plus a savoury, almost prosciutto-like note that lands you squarely in the hills of the Langhe. If you think you know Barbera, this is the bottle that might change your mind.
Dolcetto
The name is usually translated as "the little sweet one", which can trip people up, because the wine is bone dry. Its name is a nod to the grape and its lack of tartness, not to residual sugar in the glass. Dolcetto's berries ripen early and taste sweet on the vine, and that early ripening is what dictates its usual place in the vineyard. Where Barbera holds onto its acid, Dolcetto is the low-acid one of the trio, softer and rounder and quicker to drink, with deep purple colour, juicy red and black fruit, and a faint almond-bitter twist on the finish that's part of its charm. This is the red of the midweek table in Piedmont.
You won't always see Dolcetto named on the bottle, in particular due to its most famous region for the grape: Dogliani. That region holds the highest quality designation of Italian wine, a DOCG, and often that is all you will see written on the label. You'll just have to know that it's Dolcetto... For what is often thought of as a third tier grape, there are actually no fewer than three DOCGs for Dolcetto, with the other two being Dolcetto Diano d'Alba and Dolcetto di Ovada Superiore (or sometimes just Ovada on the label). All are within Piedmont.
Outside of those sub-regions, and even within them, because it ripens so early, Dolcetto almost always draws the short straw on site, sent off to the cool, high, north-facing slopes. Cecilia also makes a Dolcetto that we don't import and it is directly to the north of the hill of Serracapelli. But it's different at the Cagliero estate and that's what makes the Cagliero Dolcetto such an oddity, and so special.
Cagliero's "Nonna Marcellina" grows in the Ravera vineyard, one of the most celebrated crus in all of Barolo: prime, south-facing Nebbiolo ground where Stefano Cagliero could be making Barolo, and earning Barolo money for it. In fact he does make an excellent Barolo from Ravera, so this isn't a hypothetical. But despite having a plot in one of the region's great Nebbiolo sites, he's chosen to keep part of it planted with Dolcetto. The reason is a good one. Generations ago his great-grandmother, Marcellina (that's her photo attached to this post), founded the estate and decided that one plot of that prime ground would be planted with Dolcetto. The family has held the line ever since, and in her honour, Stefano still makes the wine in her name.
You can taste the impact. There's a body and a depth here that you rarely find in Dolcetto, the blackcurrant, redcurrant and sour-cherry fruit carried on soft tannins with just enough acidity to keep it lively. It may be the lowest priced red in our selection, but for anyone curious to explore Piedmont in all of its vinous glory, you should crack open at least one of these. It has also very much earned its spot in our pizza pack. We weren't looking for a Dolcetto on our scouting trips but this one changed our minds.
The 'other' grapes
Nebbiolo will always be the headline act in Piedmont, and rightly so: it continues to be our favourite red grape. But Barbera and Dolcetto are the varieties that tell you how the Piedmontese actually live and eat and drink, and in the right plot, with the right grower behind them, those varieties turn out to be a great deal more than 'other' grapes. Pour a glass of each, side by side, and you can decide for yourself.