2025 L’Autin “Gemma Vitis” Bonarda
If you want to discover the hidden, rugged side of Piedmontese viticulture, you have to leave the famous rolling hills
Producer
L'Autin
I have reviewed one wine from L'Autin: the 2025 L’Autin “Gemma Vitis” Bonarda (93 points).
L’Autin works the rugged western edge of Piedmont, in the Pinerolese DOC below the Cottian Alps outside Turin, about as far from the manicured Langhe as the region gets. The name means “the little vineyard” in local dialect, apt for an estate built from tiny, steep, high-altitude plots. The terroir is cooler and steeper, with soils packed with crushed stone, and the estate is so tied to its geology that it ages its sparkling wines inside an abandoned talc mine.
These alpine valleys are home to varieties most growers abandoned decades ago, such as Bonarda, Avanà, Chatus and Doux d’Henry, and L’Autin has built its identity on rescuing them, making reds of low weight and high nerve.
“Gemma Vitis” celebrates the local Bonarda. Wide temperature swings give thick skins and bright acidity, and the wine is deep purple, with wild blackberry, crushed raspberry and graphite-like minerality, juicy, vertical and refreshing, ideal with tajarin or cured alpine meats. It is essential for anyone who thinks Piedmont begins and ends with Nebbiolo.