Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
acid (the grape is mainly used to make spar-
kling wines) and the wines are very light bod-
ied with aromas of fresh fl owers and unripe
citrus fruits.
already back then, when I asked old-timers in
Castiglione Falletto or Barolo about local native
varieties other than Nebbiolo, more than one
mentioned an “aromatic or herbal” white wine
made by friends of theirs in Novello. In fact,
Nascetta is a semi-aromatic grape, and that tells
you a lot about the wine.
Today Nascetta is on a roll and it has been
planted in many other parts of the Langhe
besides Novello. Efforts are under way by an
impressively large and ever-increasing number
of producers to restore the variety, in the hopes
of yielding better wines of increased structure
and softness. Enrico Rivetto of the Rivetto win-
ery in Serralunga d'Alba admits that Nascetta
isn't the easiest variety to work with: “Geneti-
cally, it just doesn't produce much, maybe one
bunch per cane. Plus, its tight bunch is a grey-
rot magnet, especially in humid or wet years;
and so it causes a lot of extra work in the vine-
yards, where deleafi ng is a necessity. Cryomac-
eration in the cellar also means more work, and
all this added work means higher costs.” Savio
Danieli of Le Strette agrees: “Canopy manage-
ment with Nascetta is a ton of work, as the
grapevine will grow all over the place, in all
directions; but the real problem is that some
years the grapevines are devastated by
mill-
erandage.
Those who keep saying it's a good,
regular producer simply don't know Nascetta:
it's a very irregularly yielding grape.” At least
Nascetta grows erect, making it slightly easier
time on the backs of those working in the vine-
yards. No clones are currently available: gener-
ally it has medium-large cylindrical, compact
bunches with two wings and medium round-
oval berries. It ripens in early September.
By and large, Nascetta is still grown mainly
around Novello, in the southwestern corner of
the Barolo production zone, but it's being
increasingly planted elsewhere in the area, for
example around Serralunga d'Alba.
wines to try:
Cantina Barone**, Luigi Bassi**,
and Cantina Sociale di Faenza** (Frizzante).
Moscato
s
See
MOSCATO
FAMILY
, chapter 3.
Nascetta
where it's found:
Piedmont.
national reg-
istry code number:
362.
color:
white.
There are native grapes that are found in
only one country. Then there are native culti-
vars that are found only in one region of that
country. And there are even natives found in
only a few areas of that one region. Now meet
Nascetta, which takes the meaning of locally
grown to a whole new level: it is a one-town
native. For the longest time, it was only found
around the hamlet of Novello, better known for
Barolo production. The earliest document I
have been able to fi nd that specifi cally men-
tions Nascetta is Fantini's seminal 1880 topic
on the enology and viticulture of the Cuneo
province; otherwise not much has been written
about the variety in past centuries and the local
producers themselves don't seem to know
much about it or its history. Ten years ago, a
topic on Italy's native grapes would have only
mentioned Nascetta (also called Anascetta or
Nas-cëtta') in passing, if at all. Today there are a
dozen producers of this wine, which has come
to characterize Novello even more than Barolo
does. Credit for this must go to Elvio Cogno,
one of the historic fi gures of the Langhe, and to
the Danieli brothers of the Le Strette estate
(winemakers at Ceretto for roughly twenty-fi ve
years) who were the fi rst to believe in the vari-
ety. Not that Nascetta had disappeared: it was
always there, but forgotten, if not ignored. In
the 1980s, when I used to visit Barolo produc-
ers, I rarely ventured as far as Novello, but
Which Wines to Choose and Why
Rivetto began producing a Nascetta wine a few
years ago, attracted by the new challenge. “It's
the only true white grape native of the Langhe,”
