"Bright and juicy, with a sappy density to the rich cherry and raspberry fruit with a certain plum skin tanginess. Barely a whisper of any tannin, light to medium bodied with a lovely juicy acidity that finishes with a savoury, wet chalk like edge. Super charming, considerably smashable and drinks like Alpine Pinot or Beaujolais with a Piemonte twist.
Food match - To be honest I can see this being the bottle that gets sunk quite some time before dinner is ready, but… Something fatty, salty and / or spicy wouldn’t go a miss here. Some beef, cabbage and cheese stuffed local “Agnolotti del Plin” sounds about right."
Brothers Marco & Matteo at Cantine Garrone are based in Alto Piemonte at well over 200km drive from Barbaresco… with the actual village of Oira di Cremadossola only 7 miles from Swiss border. We’re also high as hell, the vineyards go up to within spitting distance of 800m.The grapes are mainly Prünent and Croatina. Prünent being the local name for Nebbiolo, thought to be the oldest biotype of the variety. It’s proven that Prünent definitely took a walk down south and ended up as Nebbiolo in Piemonte, not the other way around. Cantine Garrone are right up at the farthest limit of the region and therefore really are hidden away. The family own just 3.5ha, but through a ‘coalition’ of neighbouring miniscule scale growers they’re able to work with another 7.5ha, which include some 200yr old pre-phylloxera pergola trained vines within the DOC Valli Ossolane.
The inception of said DOC came about through the Garrone family successfully campaigning for the establishment of in 2009. It wasn’t just a one valley appellation, when it first made status it was more or less a one winery appellation!
At the turn of the century there were more than 1000ha under vine here, but the creation of the Simplon pass funnelled the majority of the young men who’d had enough of carving a tough living out of this heroic viticulture, and decided it was much easier to carve the cliff out instead. Nowadays there’s about 40ha. Still absolutely miniscule, but home to a small but growing, dynamic and exciting cohort of the next generation Alpine growers.The wines are mountain cool and elegant on the one hand, dark and intriguing on the other - all of them beautifully textured with vibrancy, depth, and immense drinkability.Juicy and dense cherry fruit, bright, sappy, and “Pinot-ique” as the French might say, in Munaloss. Ferrous, and savoury with dried raspberry in Prünent, with the clean, moreish and satisfying house style threading its way through all cuvees.It’s obviously not a competition, but in terms of what you get for your Lira, really good Barolo’s and Barbaresco’s come a pretty distant second to really good Alto Piemonte Nebbiolo’s. And really good these are.So… Intriguingly obscure DOC; varieties which on the face of it are equally obscure; relatively little-known producer doing fantastic quality Nebbiolo at not much more than half the price of an equally serious Barolo? There’s a proper 3FW vibe here and this new relationship feels like a very, very nice addition to the portfolio.
An 80% Prünent (Nebbiolo) and 20% Croatina blend, coming from up to 40 miniscule scale growers from the equally as miniscule and altiduous (a real word?) communes of Crevoladossola, Montecrestese, Masera, Trontano. The grapes are co-planted as well as co-fermented in steel, 8-10 days of maceration and 12 months of ageing in the same steel tanks. Interestingly, the name Munaloss is the backwards spelling of “Ossolanum”, which was historic name of wines from the Valli d’Ossolane before the DOC was created! Around 10,000 bottles produced annually.
