Fara DOC

The northernmost of the Novarese communal denominations, on a morainic hill east of the Sesia. Fara is Nebbiolo country in the shadow of Monte Rosa, and it is one of the small Alto Piemonte names that were once as famous as Barolo.

The Terroir The registered file is precise and worth following. Going up the eastern flank of the river Sesia, Fara is the first of the communal denominations of the Novarese. On a long and regular morainic hill, a predominantly clayey plateau, originated from fluvio-glacial terracings and enriched by heterogeneous alluvial layers, looks out over the plain. The soils are deep in the upper part, stonier and looser along the west-facing slopes. And the climate is made mild by the proximity of Monte Rosa, which shelters it from the coldest currents.

The History The file opens with a claim it can support: from the first century AD the Roman writer Pliny the Elder mentions these wines in his Naturalis Historia. Alto Piemonte was the centre of gravity of Piedmontese wine until phylloxera and industrialisation; before the First World War the Novarese and Vercellese hills carried perhaps forty thousand hectares of vines. Today the whole area carries a few hundred, and Fara has fewer than fifteen.

Grape Varieties Nebbiolo — called Spanna here — with Vespolina and Uva Rara blended in. Minimum alcohol is 12 per cent with 20 g/l of dry extract. The file’s description is restrained and exact: ruby red; a fine and pleasantly agreeable perfume; dry, saline and harmonious.

The Critical Take Alto Piemonte Nebbiolo is a different proposition from the Langhe: the soils are acidic and glacial rather than calcareous marl, the wines are paler, sharper and more overtly mineral, and the blending grapes add pepper and softness. Fara is among the gentlest of the group — less austere than Gattinara or Lessona, more perfumed, quicker to open. It also has almost no producers, which keeps it invisible. Anyone who likes Barolo and has not drunk here is missing the same grape making an entirely different argument.

The Alto Piemonte Set Seven small denominations share this ground: Gattinara and Ghemme as the two DOCGs, with Boca, Bramaterra, Lessona, Sizzano and Fara alongside, over the broader Colline Novaresi and Coste della Sesia. Between them they produce less wine than a handful of Barolo estates.

At the Table Novarese and Alpine cooking: tapulon, risotto with Gorgonzola, braised beef, game, and mountain toma. Serve at 16–17°C.

Benchmark Producers Dessilani, the historic house of the commune, and Castaldi Francesca.