At a local Italian restaurant last night I was very pleasantly surprised in trying a 2022 bottle of a Langhe white I had never heard of: Nascetta di Novello. Quite soft but with some acidity so in no way flabby, floral and herbal, hint of that waxy “petrol” note one gets with Alsace riesling. Seemed to go well with charcuterie and seafood. I gather this used to be a traditional grape in the Langhe in the c.19th, but had become almost extinct and was only recently revived by local enthusiasts. The vine is capricious, sometimes giving a productive crop and sometimes not, leading to a lot having been ripped up and replaced with the more reliable nebbiolo, which makes the great Langhe reds including Barolo and Barbaresco. Nascetta is thought to be capable of rivalling the much better known Langhe white: Gavi, which is made from the cortese grape. Nascetta now has its own DOC classification, so it is on its way back.

So if, 20 years from now, Nascetta is all the rage, remember, you read about it here first!

(I found a London wine merchant who stocks it and have ordered 6 bottles for my cellar, to do my bit to help their export sales.)

I didn't realize we had a wine enthusiast ( snob ? ) on board 😄

No self respecting Italian drinks white wines; always reds, even with fish.
The only time I'll bring out a white is for sipping with a lady friend.

With dinner, I am partial to a wine/grape grown in the area where I was born ( the Irpinia region of Campania ), called Aglianico and cultivated since Roman times, which is also enjoying a resurgence.
It similarly has some acidity, which cleans and refreshes the palate, enhancing the taste of foods you pair it with.
Taurasi is 15 min away from my home town; their Aglianico is reasonably priced, available in Canada, and my favorite.

Oddly enough, when visiting Italy, I can usually drink a couple of bottles ( and I have ) with a good dinner, but if I buy bottles imported into Canada, half a bottle is about when my head starts spinning.

2 hours ago, MigL said:

I didn't realize we had a wine enthusiast ( snob ? ) on board 😄

No self respecting Italian drinks white wines; always reds, even with fish.
The only time I'll bring out a white is for sipping with a lady friend.

With dinner, I am partial to a wine/grape grown in the area where I was born ( the Irpinia region of Campania ), called Aglianico and cultivated since Roman times, which is also enjoying a resurgence.
It similarly has some acidity, which cleans and refreshes the palate, enhancing the taste of foods you pair it with.
Taurasi is 15 min away from my home town; their Aglianico is reasonably priced, available in Canada, and my favorite.

Oddly enough, when visiting Italy, I can usually drink a couple of bottles ( and I have ) with a good dinner, but if I buy bottles imported into Canada, half a bottle is about when my head starts spinning.

Yes a snob of course. Must be. Only snobs take an interest in wine, after all. 😁

My son is doing a holiday job near Gavi and I thought I would try something from the region in case it gave us a talking point later - and perhaps he can find some. I do like nebbiolo reds very much but know very little about Italian whites - tending mostly to drink Chablis or Jurançon Sec, or sometimes white Bordeaux for chicken dishes (my wife was French). So it was nice to find a good one. That restaurant actually has a long and interesting wine list. Someone there knows his stuff and has put a lot of thought into it. They used to do an excellent Valpolicella Ripasso.

But yes I've had Aglianico. I first came across that when we once had a holiday in a place in Basilicata called Maratea. I like it. But I admit I'm a novice with Italian wine.

I believe the Primitivo grape from Southern Italy is identical to the Californian Zinfandel.

19 minutes ago, exchemist said:

They used to do an excellent Valpolicella Ripasso.

Nice wine, but go an extra step with a good Amarone.

20 minutes ago, exchemist said:

in Basilicata called Maratea

I know the Basilicata region ( just South of my home town ), but are you sure you don't mean Matera, the ancient city with cave dwellings ?
Maratea is on the coast.

Edited August 2Aug 2 by MigL

6 minutes ago, MigL said:

Nice wine, but go an extra step with a good Amarone.

I know the Basilicata region ( just South of my home town ), but are you sure you don't mean Matera, the ancient city with cave dwellings ?
Maratea is on the coast.

No it was Maratea, on the sea - a last minute booking. The hotel we were in was over a tunnel carrying the coast railway line. Interesting, though winding, drive down the Amalfi coast to get there. Lots of limoncello, I remember. And my son was just over a year old and crawling/walking. The hotel staff made a great fuss of him - Italians love small children.

Yeah I kind of like Amarone but it's very strong. Often a bit too much, I find. When I had my run-in with atrial fibrillation a few years ago I got very careful about alcoholic strength of the wine I drank, as I found I had to keep consumption at a sitting to 3 units max. (1 unit= 10g ethanol). So that pretty well ruled out things like Amarone, which is often 15%. I was better off with 12.5% Bx etc. I even got into German riesling a bit, which can be 8-9%, though tends to be a bit sweet - good with crab but not suitable for a lot of things. Even now that the AF is fixed, I'm still aware and a bit careful.

Edited August 2Aug 2 by exchemist

There seem to be quite a few Brits in the area of my home town, a place called St. Angelo dei Lombardi ( earthquake in 1980 ), near Avellino.
They have bought up homes in the surrounding small towns to use as summer cottages, or even live there full time. I still own a home/property there and will be visiting more often once I retire.
People are friendly, life is relaxed, and food and drink are fantastic.

Very little to do for young people, so they tend to move North for work and only vacation in the area during August.

2 hours ago, MigL said:

There seem to be quite a few Brits in the area of my home town, a place called St. Angelo dei Lombardi ( earthquake in 1980 ), near Avellino.
They have bought up homes in the surrounding small towns to use as summer cottages, or even live there full time. I still own a home/property there and will be visiting more often once I retire.
People are friendly, life is relaxed, and food and drink are fantastic.

Very little to do for young people, so they tend to move North for work and only vacation in the area during August.

OK, I don't know the area, though I've been to Naples and seen Pompeii, Herculaneum, Vesuvius, and Solfatara and the Phlegraean Fields.

The places in Italy I have enjoyed the most have been Sicily and Lake Maggiore. Fabulous food in both areas (and great wine in the North from Piemonte) and Sicily is full of history and mythology. For example I was amazed to find a lake at the foot of the cliffs leading up to Enna is the location of the entrance to Hades where poor Persephone had to go for 6 months of every year, which upset her mother Demeter so much that the plants stop growing and we get autumn and winter.