Nebbiolo

Nebbiolo is the grape of Barolo and Barbaresco, and it is the most demanding red variety in Italy. The name probably comes from nebbia, fog, which settles in the Langhe hills at harvest. It buds early and ripens very late, often into late October, so it occupies the vineyard for the whole season and takes the best south-facing sites in Piedmont.

It produces a wine that looks weak and behaves powerfully. The colour is pale garnet and starts browning within a few years, which misleads people. Behind it is very high tannin and very high acidity, and an aroma the trade has settled on describing as tar and roses, with sour cherry, dried herbs, liquorice and truffle. Young Barolo is genuinely hard to drink. It needs a decade, and good bottles improve for thirty years.

It barely travels. Outside Piedmont it succeeds in the Valtellina in Lombardy and in Alto Piemonte, and almost nowhere else, despite serious attempts in California, Australia and Mexico. The reason appears to be that it demands a long cool autumn with a specific soil chemistry, and gets sullen without it. In Piedmont it also makes lighter, earlier-drinking Langhe Nebbiolo and Roero.