2011 Pelassa Antaniolo Roero Riserva

Pelassa became a commercial wine producer in 1960, when the barely 20-year-old Mario Pelassa took as many bottles of the family’s Nebbiolo as he could fit into his motorcycle panniers and drove to Turin, hoping to sell them. The family had for generations run a farm and vineyard for their own use in the town of Monta d’Alba, but Mario was the first to sell the family wine commercially. His sales mission that day in 1960 was a success, and soon the Pelassa family was in the wine business. More than 50 years later Mario still works the vineyards with his wife Maria Teresa and their sons, Davide and Daniele. Pelassa grows Nebbiolo, Barbera and Arneis, and makes about a dozen red and white wines. Their wines have won numerous awards including a Silver Medal in the 2017 Decanter World Wine Awards for the 2012 Antaniolo Roero Riserva, which also earned 92 pts from Decanter.

Piedmont’s name means “foot of the mountain” and it aptly describes Piedmont’s location near the Alps, just east of France and south of Switzerland. For admirers of Nebbiolo wines, Piedmont is Italy’s most exalted region, since it is home to Barolo and Barbaresco. Barolo and Barbaresco are names of towns as well as names of the two most prestigious Piedmont DOCGs. Piedmont, with 142,000 vineyard acres, has seven DOCGs and fifty DOCs, the highest number of DOCS in any Italian wine zone. Despite its relatively northern location, its sometimes cool and frequently foggy weather, Piedmont produces mostly red wines. The Nebbiolo grape thrives in this climate and in fact takes its name from the Italian word for fog, “nebbia.” With its rich buttery food, majestic red wines and complicated vineyard system, Piedmont is often thought of as the Burgundy of Italy. As in Burgundy, Piedmont vineyards generally have well-established boundaries, and the vineyards are often divided into smaller parcels owned by several families. Though Nebbiolo is considered the most “noble” Piedmont grape, Barbera is actually the most widely planted grape. Dolcetto is the third most common red grape. White wines in Piedmont are made from Arneis, Cortese, Erbaluce and Moscato. Though Barolo and Barbaresco are the stars of the region, the easy-to-drink, sparkling “spumante” and “frizzante” wines of the Asti DOCG are the most widely produced. There are also Piedmont Indicazione Geographica Tipica (IGT) wines that are often an innovative blend of traditional and non-traditional grapes. This relatively new appellation status was started in 1992 as an attempt to give an official classification to Italy’s newer blends that do fit the strict requirements of DOC and DOCG classifications. IGT wines may use the name of the region and varietal on their label or in their name.