Piedmont is one of the world’s great viticultural districts, and the region around the lovely city of Alba, the Langhe, or Barolo and Barbaresco zones, is where Piemontese wines reach their apex. For those unfamiliar with the region, it is easiest to draw parallels with Burgundy. Like Burgundy’s Pinot Noir, Barolo and Barbaresco are the products of a single, fickle, difficult grape—Nebbiolo. The climate is generally just as difficult, with only two or three truly great vintages a decade being typical.

Though not as rigidly defined as Burgundy’s system of village and vineyard classification, Barolo and Barbaresco also have a system—being further refined—that seeks to identify outstanding vineyards and define regional typicity within subzones or communes.

The region’s fantastic wealth of favorable hillsides provides a wide range of micro-climates that support a number of different varietals. Because of this, in the middle of the Barolo zone, a producer may have a single vineyard with Nebbiolo planted at the top of a south-facing hill, Barbera at the bottom, and earlier-ripening Dolcetto on the east or west flanks.

Like Burgundy, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of growers that cultivate small holdings. Coveted vineyards such as Cannubi or Brunate may be divided between several producers, and growers may further sell grapes from these vineyards to still more producers. This makes it possible to have many different bottlings from the same vineyard—an exercise, just as in Burgundy, that quickly shows the variability of winemaking skill in Alba.