Nizza

Ivana Pomposa, export manager for Il Botolo Winery, is ecstatic. She has been waxing lyrical about Piemonte’s exciting (and relatively new) DOCG, Nizza, for ten minutes straight: ‘Nizza Monferrato,’ she exclaims, ‘is considered the “Capital of Barbera” and has always been recognized for its high-quality wines, thanks to rich soils [calcareous, of medium depth, and characterized by sandy-clay marls and stratified sandstones] and higher elevation vineyards compared to greater Asti. Barbera from this area has more structure and has an incredible cellar life of 15 to 20 years. Although similar in profile to Barbera d’Asti, Nizza DOCG has special organoleptic qualities, making it the highest expression of the Barbera varietal.’ She has a point. Comprising 18 municipalities in the hills south of Asti, this really is the pinnacle of Barbera. Here, the grape produces riper sugar levels than anywhere elsewhere in Piemonte, balancing its trademark lively acidity. There is no doubt that Barbera can produce concentrated, ageworthy wines, but too often it is undone by its ability to ripen up to two weeks earlier, even on less favourable sites, than hallowed Nebbiolo. One might consider that Émile Peynaud, Bordeaux’s renowned oenologist, sang the virtues of aging Barbera in barriques as early as the 1970s. It is just that the passage of time, and stratospheric rise of Nebbiolo, has somewhat muddied the waters.

There are excellent Barberas produced in the Barbera d’Alba DOCG and Barbera d’Asti DOC classification zones. However, by law, only 90% of the contents need be Barbera. Nizza fixes that. It specifies 100%. All wines must be aged in barrel for 6 months, and for 18 months in total before release; Riserva wines are given 12 and 30 months, respectively (similar, one might note, to Chianti Gran Selezione). The regulative body would not have stipulated such lengthy aging requirements unless the wines measured up. Ivana, for example, is quick to heap praise on her Nizza Riserva 2018, which recently won top prize at the Concours Mondial Bruxelles (beating off nearly 1,400 entries). She adopts a combative tone: ‘If this was a Chianti, the price would double. Super Tuscans? Do not get me started.’ There is no doubt that Nizza offers both serious drinking pleasure and outstanding value. This is a genuine claim to greatness. The area of production has been mapped by Italy’s most distinguished cartographer, Alessandro Masnaghetti, with detailed subzones and soil types. The first official bottles of “Nizza DOCG” appeared on the scene in July 2016, and today, there are 85 Nizza producers with a total production of 1 million bottles. It continues to gain international recognition for its rich and beguiling wines, which are well worth discovering.