Loazzolo DOC

One of the smallest denominations in Italy, and the only one in Piedmont created specifically for a botrytised sweet wine. Loazzolo covers a single commune in the high Langa between the Bormida and the Belbo, and its total production would fit in a large room.

The Terroir The registered file is precise and it explains everything. Loazzolo sits at over 400 metres above sea level, on the ridge separating the valley of the river Bormida from that of the Belbo. The production zone is characterised by a high-hill environment rich in woods and by a dry, ventilated climate with cool nights, which allows over-ripening of the Moscato grapes on the vine with noble Botrytis infection and consequent partial dehydration of the berry, which remains intact and browned.

Two Methods, One Wine The file names both permitted routes: over-ripening on the vine, and drying in the fruttaio on racks or in crates. Most producers use both in sequence — pick late, with botrytis, then dry further indoors. It adds that the production of so-called passiti is traditional in the Val Bormida, where it was also made for religious functions, which is how a great many sweet wines survived in Catholic Europe when nobody was buying them.

Grape Varieties Moscato Bianco, alone — the same variety as Asti, worked to an entirely different end. The file’s description is worth quoting: brilliant golden in colour; complex and intense on the nose, with scents of musk and vanilla and candied fruit; sweet on the palate, characteristic, with a light Moscato aroma. Minimum total alcohol is 15.5 per cent.

The Critical Take Loazzolo was created in 1992 at the instigation of essentially one grower, with a disciplinare so restrictive — tiny yields, mandatory late harvest, extended ageing including time in small oak — that almost nobody could meet it. That is both its virtue and its problem: the wine is genuinely excellent, dense and apricot-and-saffron scented with the botrytis lifting rather than smothering the Moscato, and there is so little of it that the name has never registered. It sits in the same conversation as Sauternes and Tokaji and is sold for a fraction of either.

Moscato, Twice The instructive comparison is with Asti and Moscato d’Asti, made from the same grape in the same province: those are picked early, fermented briefly, left low in alcohol and drunk young for their grapey freshness. Loazzolo does the opposite at every step. One variety, two philosophies, twenty kilometres apart.

At the Table Piedmontese desserts — hazelnut cake, bunet, dry biscuits for dipping — and, better still, Gorgonzola and other blue cheeses. Serve at 10–12°C in a small glass.

Benchmark Producers Forteto della Luja, the estate that effectively created the denomination, and Borgo Maragliano.