“Rosé”, with the accent on the contrary, is the name of the first sparkling wine made from Nebbiolo grapes from Gattinara area (special area in Piemonte, northern Italy). We had already tried some sparkling wine from Nebbiolo grapes, although it is a fairly recent phenomenon I would say, but not a sparkling wine from Nebbiolo of Gattinara.

gattinara

Gattinara is one of the known production areas of Nebbiolo, typical grape in Piedmont; it is distinguished from the production areas of Barolo and Barbaresco while ensuring a production of remarkable quality. (A companies that probably has made it known is Travaglini winery).

I read the news among the several ones available on the website of Vinitaly (which was held the first week of April) before leaving to Verona, when I prepared my agenda full of visits, meetings and greetings. The news was, of course, in the section dedicated to the press with the classic label “New!”; so I immediately put on the agenda this name: “Cantione del Signore” (the name of the winery) with their “Rosé” sparkling wine. This is clearly a rosé sparkling wine that they decided to call “Rosè” … maybe to avoid any misunderstanding! In fact, the bottle is black and satin, unusual choice as pink color is always attractive itself.

Who? Stefano Dorelli, who retains the surname of his maternal grandfather “del Signore” for the company, and his partner Giuseppe Del Mastro . I meet them in the most crowded day at Vinitaly: Sunday, a chaos, but my schedule did not allow me to do otherwise. I find them available and enthusiastic and immediately asked to show me the bottle: very pretty I must say, elegant packaging. Pouring it in the bottle you notice this light colour with shades of red onion skin.

Del Signore winery is a small company founded in 2003, but that begins to deal with the market in 2009. Today they produce about 15,000 bottles and only in recent years they have decided to make this “experiment”: Metodo Classico sparkling wine from Nebbiolo grapes. The initial idea was to make it white but when they first made it, they were fascinated themselves by the pink color and decided to leave it.

We tasted together Rosé 2011: pleasant, with bouquet bread crusts and palate dry and refreshing, with notes of red fruits and a body typical of Nebbiolo. I loved to match it to a toast with blue cheese, perfect pairing considering it is a Pas dosè (ie without any trace of sugar).

An elegant discovery.