1998 Pecchenino La Castella

Pecchenino dates from the late 18th century when the Pecchenino family were well-established farmers in the Commune of Dogliani. By the early 20th century the Pecchenino family owned 20 acres and today brothers Orlando and Atillio Pecchenino manage 65 vineyard acres. Some 70% of the vineyards are planted to Dolcetto, with the remainder planted to Barbera, Nebbiolo, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. Pecchenino also has vineyards in Monforte d’Alba, a prime area for the production of Barolo. About 110,000 bottles are produced annually. Gambero Rosso has called Pecchenino “a winery that helped write the history of Dolcetto, giving a new image to a grape variety that was often wrongly ignored.” Wine Advocate has written that “Pecchenino makes some of the most food-friendly wines in Italy today... (It) also makes two top-shelf expressions of Nebbiolo.”

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.