Ghemme is a village in the province of Novara, on the left bank of the Sesia river, right opposite Gattinara. The two appellations are sisters: the same grape, the same moraine hills at the foot of Monte Rosa, the same cool climate of Alto Piedmont. The area covers parts of the municipalities of Ghemme and Romagnano Sesia, with vineyards between 220 and 400 metres above sea level. It is a small DOCG: about 34 hectares and 1,020 hectolitres. The DOC dates from 1969, the DOCG from 1997.
The rules
The regulations require at least 85% Nebbiolo, called Spanna here, with Uva Rara and Vespolina up to 15%. Minimum alcohol is 12%. Ghemme ages for at least 34 months, 18 of them in cask, and cannot be released before 1 September of the third year after the harvest. The Riserva ages for at least 46 months, 24 of them in cask.
In the glass it is garnet red, with aromas of violet, dried rose, small red fruits, spice and a mineral note; the tannins are fine, the acidity lively. It is a mountain Nebbiolo, linear and long-lived, which over the years develops notes of undergrowth, tobacco and truffle.
Two thousand years of wine
A tombstone dedicated to Vibius Crispus, a Roman senator in the time of Tiberius, found near Ghemme, attests to viticulture as early as the first century, when the place was called Agamium. Pliny the Elder mentions a grape called "spionia", a name recalling Spanna, whose fruit ripens with the first autumn fogs. In the Middle Ages Spanna became the official wine of the lords of Milan, the Visconti and the Sforza, accounting for 80% of the wines served at court. In 1871 the historian Carlo Dionisotti wrote that the growing method described by Pliny was "still practised as then" in the area.
At the table
Ghemme goes with braised and slow-cooked meats, game, risotto with mushrooms or truffle and aged cheeses such as piquant Gorgonzola from the nearby Novara plain. Nebbiolo lovers can compare it with Barolo from the Langhe to see how much terroir changes the grape.
