Alta Langa
Italy’s Metodo Classico tradition was born in this part of Piedmont in the 1800s thanks to the region’s historic relationship and geographic proximity with France.
A few growers planted Pinot Nero and Chardonnay in the early 1800s but enologist Carlo Gancia, who founded the Fratelli Gancia firm with his brother in 1850, was the trail blazer. He began cultivating the two grapes in earnest around Canelli in the mid-1800s for classic method sparklers after he learned the secrets of Champagne production in Reims in 1848.
In the 1970s, market demands for Vermouth and sweet bubbles like Asti Spumante, made with the Moscato grape using the cheaper, quicker Charmat method, took the focus off of Piedmont’s bottle fermented wines.
In the 1990s, a group of Piedmont producers began reviving serious Metodo Classico production, leading to the creation of the Alta Langa DOC in 2002. Now a DOCG, Alta Langa, made in the provinces Asti, Alessandria and Cuneo, are enticing, seriously structured sparklers made with Pinot Nero and Chardonnay. The strict production code mandates a minimum 30 months aging on the lees and exclusively vintage-dated bottlings.
Besides the skill of the winemakers, many of whom also make Barolo and Barbaresco, the zone’s hilly terrain and calcareous soils are ideal for Pinot Nero, the most planted variety in the denomination, and Chardonnay destined for Alta Langa.
Most of the best Alta Langa are crafted without dosage and most are labeled as Pas Dosé.
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