When I was in Piedmont last month I enjoyed a bottle of the 2014 Bruno Giacosa Nebbiolo D’Alba at the wonderful Mange in La Morra. Youthful, great with food, medium body, clearly articulated nose of flower petals, great balance. Yum, and I think it was about $25.
Back in the US I’m looking at what I can find and I see that there are TWO different Bruno Giacosa Nebbiolo bottlings – the D’Alba and the D’Alba Valmaggiore. Had me wondering what the difference is. Cellar Tracker lists both but they seem muddled and intermixed. The only reason I know for sure what I drank is that I took a picture of it. This was the straight D’Alba. And just to be super clear, I don’t mean any bottles labeled as Barolo or Barbaresco (a different tangle that Ken V ably has solved and documented on his awesome web site).
Who knows the story on these wines? Estate vs. Not? Particular vineyards? History over time? Thanks .
(Yes this is bait for Ken V – I’m hoping he’ll weigh in. But I posted here because I figure others might be interested)
By the way, this was the bottle.
Random bonus: We also drank this bottle with the dinner.
Funny story – when the proprietor at Mange opened this Mag he was visibly relieved that the bottle was in good shape. It was a lovely Barbera, clearly on the back side of its life but still very tasty with dinner. And it’s always fun to open a magnum.
Valmaggiore is a small subzone of Nebbiolo d’Alba near Vezza in Roero, across the river from Alba, which is considered the best part of Roero for nebbiolo. Sandrone, Brovia, Marengo and other Barolo makers also make Nebbiolo d’Alba - Valmaggiore.
The plain Nebbiolo d’Alba DOC covers a much larger area around Alba on both sides of the river. (Somewhat confusingly, it does not encompass the Barolo and Barbaresco zones, even though DOCs such as Barbera d’Alba and Dolcetto d’Alba overlap with those zones. Nebbiolo from the Barolo or Barbaresco areas that don’t carry the appellation names have to be labeled as Langhe Nebbiolo.)
Rich, as John says about Valmaggiore, it is in Roero and serious Barolo houses are showing a lot of interest in the vineyard. I have no map of it either but, visiting Sandrone a couple of years ago, Alan showed us the below photo of the incredibly steep vineyard …
BTW, your Cavallotto photo is a bit blurry but looks to be their Barbera Superiore Bricco Boschis Vigna del Cuculo. Planted in 1962, it’s one of my favourite Barberas from all of Piemonte. I do have a map of that site from the wall in the winery (the green portion).
Sorry about the blurry Barbera picture. It is indeed the specific bottling you mentioned Howard, from 2006. The picture on my iPhone is much clearer!
I really appreciate the maps and info about the Roero. Not a region (sub-region?) I knew much about, but biking up to the plateau from the Tanaro and then up and down the little hills and valleys of the region made it especially vivid for me. Plus all the Arneis we drank.
Looks like I was sleeping on the job. Fortunately, others have chimed in with lots of useful info. The only small correction I’d make is that Valmaggiore is not “a subzone of Nebbiolo d’Alba near Vezza in Roero;” but more precisely, Valmaggiore is a vineyard in the commune of Vezza d’Alba which is in the Roero region. I think it is safe to say that it is the most famous vineyard in Roero. In fact, I cannot name another without looking a map.
FWIW I do have a page for all of Giacosa’s wines that are not Barolo or Barbaresco (though it is still a work in progress). If you have any labels I am missing, please do send them along:
I was fudging when I wrote that since none of my reference books nor a string of Google searches turned up anything useful on Valmaggiore.
Ken, do you know if the soil is more like the areas on the south side of the Tanaro? Why is it better for serious nebbiolo than the rest of Roero? I see it’s quite close to the river, and to Alba, so I can imagine it might be more geologically similar to, say, Barbaresco. But that’s really speculation.
I’m not a geologist, but as a bicyclist I can say that the two sides of the Tanaro are amazingly different. On the Roero side there is a small alluvial plain and then a very steep climb up to an elevated plateau with a very rough series of ridges and valleys. On the Barbaresco/Alba side there is a much broader plain punctuated by the hills and bowls of Barbaresco and Barolo, among others. They seem really quite different. The soils are a different question, though.
My sense is that it is like La Morra, but more so. So the wines should be even more delicate.
I did find this description on the website of one of Sandrone’s importers:
The Roero is a different world from the Barolo: it is a wilder and less developed place when compared to the orderly rows of vines that blanket the Barolo. Deep forests hug the northern sides of the steep hills, and game runs wild, including foxes, boar and rabbit. The flat narrow valley floors are planted to fruits and vegetables. Typically the Valmaggiore is 3-9 degrees warmer than in Barolo, and spring arrives a week or two earlier.
The Valmaggiore hill itself is incredibly steep: a 100% grade (45 degrees) in places. The soil is comprised almost entirely of sand from shallow sea and beach deposits – fossils are common. There’s almost no organic matter in the soil and the vines have to grow deep down for nutrients. As the sandy site is so well drained, in dry years the vines may suffer.
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