Gattinara (wine)
Encyclopedia
Gattinara is a red Italian wine
Italian wine
Italian wine is wine produced in Italy, a country which is home to some of the oldest wine-producing regions in the world. Italy is the world's largest wine producer, responsible for approximately one-fifth of world wine production in 2005. Italian wine is exported largely around the world and has...

 with Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) status produced from Nebbiolo grapes grown within the boundaries of the commune
Comune
In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...

 of Gattinara
Gattinara
Gattinara is a comune in the Province of Vercelli in the Italian region Piedmont, located about northeast of Turin and about north of Vercelli...

 which is located in the hills in the north of the province of Vercelli, northwest of Novara
Novara
Novara is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With c. 105,000 inhabitants, it is the second most populous city in Piedmont after Turin. It is an important crossroads for commercial traffic along the routes from Milan to Turin...

 in the Piedmont region. It was awarded DOC
Denominazione di Origine Controllata
Denominazione di origine controllata is a quality assurance label for food products, especially wines and various formaggi . It is modelled after the French AOC...

 status in 1967 and received its DOCG classification in 1990.

Wines

The wine is made primarily from the Nebbiolo grape variety (known locally as Spanna) which must constitute a minimum 90% of the wine and may be blended with up to 10% Bonarda
Bonarda Piemontese
Bonarda Piemontese, now officially listed simply as Bonarda but also known as Bonarda di Chieri and Bonarda del Monferrato is a red Italian wine grape variety that is grown in the northwestern region of Piedmont...

 di Gattinara and no more than 4% of Vespolina
Vespolina
Vespolina is a red Italian wine grape variety that is planted in Piedmont around Gattinara. Ampelographer believe that the grape is most likely indigenous to this area of Piedmont and recent DNA profiling identified a parent-offspring relationship with Nebbiolo. Outside of Piedmont, it is found in...

. The wine is aged in oak barrels for 1 year or two years if it is a riserva, with an additional two years of ageing in the bottle. The Oxford Companion to Wine
The Oxford Companion to Wine
The Oxford Companion to Wine is a book in the series of Oxford Companions published by Oxford University Press. The book provides an alphabetically arranged reference to wine, compiled and edited by Jancis Robinson, with contributions by several wine writers including Hugh Johnson, Michael...

asserts that wine from Vercelli hills on the west bank of the Sesia river and Novara hills are capable of producing rivals to Barolo
Barolo
Barolo is a red Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita wine produced in the northern Italian region of Piedmont. It is made from the Nebbiolo grape and is often described as one of Italy's greatest wines...

 and Barbaresco
Barbaresco
Barbaresco is an Italian wine made with the Nebbiolo grape. Barbaresco is produced in the Piedmont region in an area of the Langhe immediately to the east of Alba and specifically in the comunes of Barbaresco, Treiso and Neive plus that area of the frazione San Rocco Senodelvio which was once part...

, and has at times in Piedmontese history been more admired than Barolo for its longevity
Aging of wine
The aging of wine, and its ability to potentially improve wine quality, distinguishes wine from most other consumable goods. While wine is perishable and capable of deteriorating, complex chemical reactions involving a wine's sugars, acids and phenolic compounds can alter the aroma, color,...

.

External links

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