The Nebbiolo heartland is in the Barolo region, a cluster of hills around the village of the same name just south-west of the town of Alba. The exceptionally gifted producers there know that it is worth planting Nebbiolo only on south or south-west facing slopes at an altitude somewhere between 250 and 450 meters as there is no chance of making premium wine from this late-ripening variety if it is not exposed to maximum sunshine.

Nebbiolo needs particularly careful site selection as it is not only late-ripening but also early flowering, hence the suitability of the slopes of the Langhe hills. Nebbiolo is popularly thought to take its name from ‘nebbia’, Italian for the fogs that characteristically drape these hills in autumn, further restricting any ability to ripen late in the growing season. Growing Nebbiolo is a question of precise engineering because the vines are naturally vigorous and need extremely strict treatment in the vineyard if they are not to waste all their energy on sprouting leaves rather than ripening fruit.

Like Pinot Noir, Nebbiolo is extremely sensitive to the soil in which it is planted and tends to make the very finest wine when grown on the calcareous marls around Alba, either to the south-west in the Barolo zone or to the north-west in the smaller, younger Barbaresco zone where slightly lighter, earlier-maturing wines are made. These can be some of the best-value examples of Nebbiolo.

In fact, top-quality Barolo made in the most traditional way is one of the slowest-maturing wines in the world, easily withstanding four decades in bottle. Small French oak barriques have been rapidly replacing large Slovenian oak casks, or ‘botti’, resulting in smoother, faster-maturing, if slightly less distinctive wines.