The Producer

Salvano Vini

The Region

Piedmont

Piedmont wine region geographyPiedmont (‘at the foot of the mountain’) is a very high-quality wine region in the northwest of Italy with Turin (Torino) as the main city. Mountains protect the region from every side, except from the east, where the Po River runs. Although Piedmont is at the same latitude as Bordeaux, it has a continental climate, with cold winters, because it is far from the moderating influence of the sea.However, the mountains and the river  create a lot of fog (‘nebbia’ in Italian), which allows the grapes to ripen slowly, developing all the good flavours.They plant the...

Piedmont wine region geographyPiedmont (‘at the foot of the mountain’) is a very high-quality wine region in the northwest of Italy with Turin (Torino) as the main city. Mountains protect the region from every side, except from the east, where the Po River runs. Although Piedmont is at the same latitude as Bordeaux, it has a continental climate, with cold winters, because it is far from the moderating influence of the sea.However, the mountains and the river  create a lot of fog (‘nebbia’ in Italian), which allows the grapes to ripen slowly, developing all the good flavours.They plant the vines high up on the romantic, rolling hills. The location is delightfully scenic and if you like wine, definitely include Piedmont on your holiday list.  (Matthew said that the scenery was so beautiful it could almost be England. I think he was joking.) Make sure you rent a car or you are a keen cyclist, as distances between villages are too far for walking.Piedmont has 45 DOCs and 15 DOCGs (high quality denominations) and it is the only region in Italy that does not allow production of IGT win