Gattinara

Gattinara sits on the right bank of the Sesia, north of Vercelli, in the Alto Piemonte wine zone where Nebbiolo is called Spanna. The hills behind the town are volcanic, the surface gravel pushed up when Africa met Europe and built Monte Rosa sixty million years ago. Romans planted vineyards here in the second century BC. In 1242, the commune of Vercelli established a borgofranco that became the modern town. In the early sixteenth century Cardinal Mercurino Arborio di Gattinara, Grand Chancellor to Emperor Charles V, served the local wine at his diplomatic dinners in Spain and Flanders; it stayed a court favorite for decades. The Torre delle Castelle, tenth-century watchtower above the vineyards, still stands on the ridge. Gattinara became Italy's twentieth DOCG in 1990. The wine is at least ninety percent Nebbiolo, aged three years in wood for the riserva, and the bottles age longer than most Barolo because the volcanic minerality slows everything down.