Collection: Piedmont

Piemonte lies in north-western Italy, framed by the Alps and the Apennines. The name comes from the Italian "Piede del Monte", meaning at the foot of the mountain, and it captures the landscape precisely. To the west, the Maritime Alps separate the region from France and Liguria. Although Piemonte sits at roughly the same latitude as Bordeaux, most of it is shaped by a continental climate, while the Gavi zone in the south-east benefits from a maritime influence. With us, the majority of the selection comes from Piemonte itself, and it is consistently from here that you will find our Piemontese bottles.

The heart of wine production lies in the Langhe and Monferrato hills in the south-east, around the towns of Alba, Asti and Alessandria. Langhe holds Italy's densest concentration of vineyards, shaped by the rivers Tanaro and Belbo, which run down from the Maritime Alps and influence the soil along the way. This is also where the vulnerability shows itself, for the hills can be struck by hail throughout the summer and autumn.

Piemonte is first and foremost red wine country. Between 60 and 70 percent of production is red wine, and the region counts 52 DOC zones, more than any other Italian region. The wine culture grew out of a farm-based tradition, less centralised than for example Toscana, and that is still felt. A typical vineyard for Barolo or Barbaresco is around two hectares and yields about ten thousand bottles a year, and more than eight hundred producers work with these wines. The fine-grained structure offers a wealth of styles to explore.

If you want to understand the backbone of the region, there are two tracks in particular to follow: the structured, age-worthy wines of Nebbiolo and the more juicy, everyday-friendly wines of Barbera, which belong to the region's more approachable side. In Alba, wine is the dominant livelihood, alongside textile industry and chocolate production, and that says something about how central wine culture is to the area. You can also explore our other Italian wines if you want to put Piemonte in a larger context.