The Vineyard Landscape of Piedmont: Langhe-Roero and Monferrato
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How it came to be
In southern Piedmont, between the River Po and the Ligurian Apennines, vine pollen from the 5th century BC has been found, from a time when Etruscans and Celts met and traded here. Etruscan and Celtic words connected with wine survive in the local dialect. In Roman times Pliny the Elder named the area among the most favourable for vines in ancient Italy, and Strabo wrote about its barrels.
Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, later the architect of Italian unification, lived at the castle of Grinzane from 1830; as mayor of Grinzane from 1832 to 1849 he restored the castle and improved the vineyards around it. In 1896 the Italian Ministry of Agriculture marked out the zone where Barolo could be made, around the commune of Barolo and its neighbours. Barolo became a DOC in 1966 and a DOCG in 1980.
On 22 June 2014 five wine-growing areas, the Langa of Barolo, the Hills of Barbaresco, Nizza Monferrato and Barbera, Canelli and Asti Spumante, and the Monferrato of the Infernot, were inscribed together with the Castle of Grinzane Cavour. The hillside vineyards follow old land divisions and are dotted with hilltop villages, castles, Romanesque churches, farmhouses and wine cellars.
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