Alta Langa

Italy's most underrated sparkling wines? It's early days yet, but look out for Alta Langa

- MICHAEL GARNER

Until at least the 1990s Piedmont was, perhaps surprisingly, best known for its sparkling wines. Nowadays, of course, thanks to the meteoric rise of Barolo, Barbaresco, Barbera et al, the region is widely viewed as red wine country.

This, however, ignores a strong history of producing bubbles that dates back to long before the middle of the 19th century, when Carlo Gancia began using the Champagne method (‘metodo classico’) to ferment Moscato grapes from vineyards near Asti. This practice in turn built on the local tradition going back to the 16th century of making ‘filtrato dolce’, a low-alcohol, bubbly and sweet white wine filtered through hessian sacks to block fermentation, which subsequently morphed into today’s Asti/Moscato d’Asti DOCGs.

Though relatively new compared to other Italian denominations based on the metodo classico process, Alta Langa– granted DOC in 2002 and quickly promoted to DOCG in 2011 – is now making serious waves. It’s worth bearing in mind Piedmont’s strong historic and cultural links with France.

The Alta Langa project began in 1990 with the aim of producing premium quality sparkling wines of good ageing potential from Pinot Nero (Pinot Noir) and Chardonnay grapes grown in the hills to the south and east of Alba across the provinces of Asti, Alessandria and Cuneo; previously the main varieties planted here were Moscato and Dolcetto.