Dolcetto

Dolcetto means little sweet one, which refers to the taste of the ripe grape on the vine rather than the wine, which is emphatically dry. It is one of Piedmont's three main reds alongside Nebbiolo and Barbera, and it occupies a specific place in the local order of things: the wine you drink while the others are ageing.

It ripens early, several weeks before Nebbiolo, which in a region where autumn fog and rain can ruin a harvest is a valuable form of insurance. It is planted on the cooler, less favoured sites, leaving the best south-facing slopes for Nebbiolo — an allocation that tells you the regional hierarchy exactly.

The wine is deep purple, with low acidity, moderate to firm tannin and generous dark fruit: blackberry, black cherry and plum, with liquorice, violet and a characteristic bitter-almond note on the finish that is the grape's signature.

That combination of low acid and real tannin is unusual and makes it a genuinely good food wine, particularly with the rich, buttery cooking of Piedmont.

The best zones are Dogliani and Diano d'Alba, along with Alba and Ovada. Dogliani in particular produces wines with enough structure to age for five or ten years, which contradicts the conventional advice to drink Dolcetto young.

It is difficult in the vineyard — prone to bunch rot and to the shoots breaking off in wind — which is one reason plantings have declined.