Roero

Two grapes share the hills. Nebbiolo, at least 95 per cent of the red, takes the south-facing slopes and the leanest, sandiest soils, where it gives a fragrant, elegant wine; Arneis, at least 95 per cent of the white, grown here since the fifteenth century, also takes the cooler spots and smells of white flowers, apple, peach and hazelnut. Its name may come from a dialect word for a contrary, unreliable character, or from renexij, a fifteenth-century name for the vine.

Vineyards stay below 400 metres. Roero red ages 20 months from the first of November of the harvest year, six in wood, and is released from the first of July of the second year; a Riserva ages 32 months. The Arneis may also be sparkling. Roero became a DOC in 1985 and a DOCG in 2004.