Pinerolese DOC

A high, cold DOC on the western edge of Piedmont, in the province of Turin where the plain rises into the Cottian Alps. Pinerolese has little in common with the Langhe: this is alpine viticulture, worked on terraces between roughly 300 and 800 meters, and it survives on a handful of varieties found almost nowhere else.

The Terroir Glacial moraine and metamorphic schist carried down from the Alps — poor, stony, free-draining soils on steep gradients, with dramatic day-night temperature swings. The wines that result are pale, high-toned and sharply acidic, the opposite of Piedmont’s reputation for weight and tannin.

The Varieties Alongside Barbera, Bonarda, Freisa and Nebbiolo, the DOC protects a group of genuine alpine rarities — Avanà, Avarengo, Chatus and Becuét. Most were abandoned across the twentieth century as families left the mountain valleys, and their survival is owed to a small number of stubborn growers.

Ramìe The zone’s most celebrated wine, from terraced plots above Pomaretto in the Val Chisone — among the steepest worked vineyard land in Italy. A field blend of the local varieties, produced in tiny quantities and historically drunk almost entirely within the valley.

Doux d’Henry A pale, delicately spiced red from the variety of the same name, long associated with the Savoy court and now grown on only a few hectares.

The Critical Take Come for Ramìe, which has no real equivalent anywhere in Italy. These are wines of nerve and transparency rather than power, and they reward anyone who reads altitude as a virtue rather than a limitation.

The Varieties, Properly The four rarities are worth distinguishing. Avanà is the backbone of Ramìe, pale and high-toned with an alpine-strawberry character. Avarengo is deeper in colour and firmer, and gives the blend its structure. Chatus — known in the Ardèche as Corbeau, and one of the parents of Albarossa — is the most tannic of the group. Becuét is the rarest, down to a few hectares, and carries a distinctive black-pepper note. None of the four exists in commercial quantity anywhere else.

At the Table Occitan and Alpine cooking, which is what these valleys actually eat: calhettes, potato and cabbage dishes, cured mountain meats, game, and the toma of the Val Chisone. These are high-acid, low-tannin reds and they take a chill well — serve at 14–15°C. Doux d’Henry, lighter still, is very nearly a summer red.

Benchmark Producers L’Autin, Coutandin.