According to an article in a recent issue of Civiltá del Bere, Italy's major wine trade magazine (lots of news & statistics, no reviews) Piemonte has established a new Langhe DOC zone to cover the wines made around Alba that do not fit into the existing DOCs, which include Barolo, Barbaresco, Dolcetto d'Alba, Barbera d'Alba, Roero Arneis and many more.

The rational behind the new DOC, the authors say, is to provide vintners with a designation other than the lowly Vino da Tavola (see http://italianfood.about.com/library/weekly/aa031497.htm for an overview of Italian wine designations) for their non-traditional wines -- wines made from grapes that are new to the region, e.g. Chardonnay, and wines made from blends of grapes, e.g. Nebbiolo and Barbera. The establishment of this new outlet should, they continue, reduce pressure to tinker with the regulations governing the existing DOC wines (especially Barolo and Barbaresco) that are all made from single grapes. Thus tradition is saved, and innovation recognized. It's all quite glowing, and the vintners interviewed are extremely positive.

I'm not quite so sure. Foremost, for a philosophical reason. DOCs should in theory be used to denote specific wines made in specific areas well suited to the production of wine, following specific methods. For example, Barolo is a wine made from specific varietals of the Nebbiolo grape grown in non-north-facing vineyards in the 5 townships around Barolo; it must mature for 3 years, 2 of which in wood (4 years for the Riserva) prior to its release. Even though there is considerable variation in fermentation technique and wood use from producer to producer, you have a fairly good idea of what you're getting when you buy a bottle -- a full bodied, elegant, powerful wine.

The new Langhe DOC sets no restrictions on grapes used -- they can be red (Nebbiolo, Syrah, etc) or white (Chardonnay, Viognier, Arneis), or any blend the vintner chooses to try. While I have nothing against the use of non-traditional grapes or blends (the labels pictured in the article stated what went into the wines), it is stretching the concept of DOC to say that anything and everything qualifies.

The Langhe's traditional DOCs are for the most part quite restricted: Barolo to all or parts of five townships around Barolo, Dolcetto di Dogliani to Dogliani and parts of 10 other surrounding townships, and Roero Arneis to a few towns on the left bank of the Tanaro down river from Alba, and so on. The Langhe DOC covers the entire area. Were it monotonous this would be fine, but the Lange are topographically and geologically varied; some parts of the region are perfectly suited for the production of wine and others less so. The new DOC includes them all; it thus becomes a catchall for grapes grown in the region but outside the areas that have been traditionally recognized as excellent. This again goes counter to the philosophy behind the concept of DOC.

My final reservation is one regarding what's known as "trasparenza" in Italian -- clarity for want of a better term in English. Many of the vintners who are making the new Langhe wines have their vineyards within the areas of the more traditional, prestigious denominations. Therefore, for example, they could make both Langhe Nebbiolo and either Barolo or Barbaresco, using the better grapes for the latter and the rest for the former. In a good vintage this could work very well. However, in an off year, or one in which part of the vineyard suffered hale damage, what's to prevent a producer from diverting most of the grapes into the more prestigious wine that sells at a much higher price? The temptation will be great, and I expect the output of some producers' prestigious wines will be strangely constant, while that of their Langhe wines will fluctuate considerably.

A DOC should denote a specific wine with well defined characteristics. The new Langhe DOC, as far as I can tell, does the opposite -- Since Langhe DOC wine can contain any grape or blend of grapes, be fermented and aged as the vintner pleases, and come from any part of a very diverse region, consumers will have no way of knowing what's really in a bottle short of buying and tasting. In final analysis, the Langhe DOC strikes me primarily as a marketing ploy that will give vintners the opportunity to classify wines that break with local tradition as something other than a plain table wine (VdT). Considering that the Super Tuscans gained worldwide renown while classified VdT, I'm not sure this new DOC is necessary.

A presto,
Kyle Phillips
Webweaver, About Italian Cuisine

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