It's always best to have a glass in hand as you read our varietal guides... Here's where to find Timorasso in our range: Cecilia Monte's Colli Tortonesi Timorasso.
Will the variety be on the label?
For Timorasso, that's a maybe. There are two categories of names on labels that you might find in your journey through Timorasso.
Some labels, including Cecilia Monte's, include the words "Colli Tortonesi Timorasso." Colli Tortonesi means the "hills of Tortona". Tortona being a town and commune about 40km due east of Asti in the Piedmont region of Italy. That's the home of the Timorasso variety.
Others will include just the word "Derthona" or a combination of Derthona and Colli Tortonesi Timorasso. Derthona is the ancient Roman name for the town of Tortona and its emergence on wine labels tracks the modern re-birth of the Timorasso variety. Read the history and modern reincarnation sections below for more.
In terms of officially recognised designations, "Derthona" is trademarked by the local consorzio, but is not yet an official DOC. Timorasso remains one of several grapes that are allowed to be grown and vinified under the Colli Tortonesi DOC.
Varietal Characteristics
Timorasso is one of those varieties that you have to taste to really get a feel for. It is full bodied, but not (usually) from any time in oak.
Its colour is typically a pale yellow or gold in its youth, deepening in colour as it ages. Cecilia Monte’s 2022 had a remarkably golden colour even on its release (while maintaining a bright and fresh acidity).
It's hard to compare with other varieties, because it has the potential to hold characteristics similar to so many of them, and yet is utterly unique. How can one wine have the potential to be mineral like a Chablis, linear like a Clare Valley riesling, oily and aromatic like a Viognier, age into nut and honey flavours like a Chenin Blanc, drip with lemony acidity like an Etna Bianco and be generous with stone-fruit flavours like a Chardonnay from the Mâconnais? It shouldn't be possible really, but that's Timorasso. Complex, delicious, versatile. It's our favourite Italian white varietal, and second only to Chardonnay (in the form of Champagne) across the rest of the world of white wine.
If you see it on a wine list, just give it a go, you won't be disappointed. We particularly love the full page dedicated to Timorasso on the wine list at Attenzione in Redfern (Sydney), and not just because it includes two vintages of Cecilia's wine.
There's just one problem with Timorasso that is likely to limit its widespread adoption. Timorasso is low yielding at the best of times (driving the cost of the wine higher than other varieties), and as the grapes grow and ripen on the vine, they are particularly tightly clustered. That means it's difficult for wind and sun to fully dry them when they get wet, making the variety particularly susceptible to rot. This is particularly risky for producers like Cecilia who farm with sustainable practices and don’t like to dump large amounts of fungicide on the grapes.
Case in point: Cecilia's 2024 vintage was a total wipeout due to rains in late summer and early autumn before the grapes could be harvested. We bought as much as we could of the 2023 to try and get us through to the arrival of the 2025 vintage, but highly doubt it will be enough. Maybe we shouldn't have shared this guide until 2027?
A Bit of History
Timorasso has been grown around the hills of Tortona since at least the 14th century, but its mercurial nature meant that very little of it was replanted when vineyards were destroyed by phylloxera in the 19th century. By the time the late 20th century came around, Timorasso had been relegated to a small component of Cortese (that's the grape used in Gavi) dominant white blends made in the area. The region was better known for producing red varieties like Barbera.
Modern Reincarnation
That all changed in the 1980s when Walter Massa rediscovered the variety while searching for a grape to take advantage of terroir he thought was well suited to high quality white wine. He planted new Timorasso vineyards and championed the wine among other producers in the region. In a short few decades, it has gone from almost extinct, with just a handful of vines, to around 750 hectares within the Colli Tortonesi region. It's still not widely known by the general wine drinking public (and we will admit to not knowing about it until we first tasted it with Cecilia a few years ago).
But to those in the know, it is now considered one of the great white varieties of the world and given silly nicknames like "white Barolo" due to its complexity and age-worthiness. How many other great varieties like Timorasso have been lost to us because they didn't have their own Walter Massa?
The adoption of the name "Derthona" by some producers of Timorasso grown within the Colli Tortonesi DOC stems from a very European concern: a desire to position it as a unique combination of variety and geography that cannot be replicated elsewhere in the world. It has the added benefit of confusing wine drinkers from the new world who will have another mysterious label name to decipher.
Maybe we can convince Cecilia to hold the line with her label?