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Picotener Nebbiolo Project

Nebbiolo is one of the most interesting Piemonte native grape varieties. Working on it going through the Barolo, Barbaresco and Roero appellations we found a special sub-variety of this multifaceted grape: the Picotener or, as we call familiarly, the “forgotten nebbiolo“.

Enrico Serafino is the first producer to release Picotener Langhe Nebbiolo doc giving it a new prestigious legacy.

Nebbiolo: a native grape variety

Within thousands of different cultivar all around the world the nebbiolo is among the most prestigious grape varieties and it is universally recognized for the production of premium quality red wines.

The first historical quote of nebbiolo was found in a 1266 document in Castello di Rivoli (in Turin province). For this reason, the scientific researchers established that nebbiolo is a Piemontese Indigenous Variety an integral part of what we now call Piemonte Attitude.

Since then nebbiolo was qualified with the addition of biotype name (or sub-variety). It is in fact quite common to find nebbiolo quotes of “Lampia”, “Michet”, “Rosé” and “Bolla”.

The Sub-variety importance

A recent article published in December 2017 from the renowned scientific review Nature (for reference see the Ratings, Press and Downloads section), outlined the genetic mapping completed on nebbiolo that confirmed some important aspects related to different biotypes.

The results confirmed the existence of many differences in the genetic characters of the single sub-varieties that correspond to different wines. With this, the importance of the biotypes in this vine was scientifically established, something already widely known at the empirical level.

Additionally, the study found that Picotener is one of the three most representative subvarieties of the nebbiolo spectrum analyzed.

The very rare "forgotten nebbiolo"

Picotener, in particular, results from very different sub-varieties of nebbiolo and shows distinctive characteristics such as:
Low production yield;
Low vegetative vigour;
Resistance to higher severe climates;
– Special wide aroma wines
– More intense coloured wines.

With these results we can understand why, over time, this nebbiolo biotype has become extremely rare. Complex to raise with a low yield, producers gave up. Authorities forgot Picotener and instead regulated the most known biotypes like Lampia and Michet.

Failing its spread, the Picotener or Picoutener has been wrongly adopted as synonymous of nebbiolo tout-court.

 

 

Why rediscover the Picotener?

Enrico Serafino is the first producer to release Picotener Langhe Nebbiolo doc giving it a new prestigious legacy.

We have been working on this project for many years and firmly believes in it. In fact, all these difficulties intrigued us some years ago and led us to plant two vineyards of Picotener that we vinified experimentally already in 2015 and 2016 harvests to verify the quality and find the correct ageing process.

Nature article was a real surprise and a confirmation that the passion moving us, is the right thing to do.

Finally, rediscover Picotener makes sense because it is :
– a different nebbiolo;
– an interesting rediscovery for this territory;
– a true indigenous expression of Piemonte;
– originally from Canavese like our founder Enrico Serafino to whom we dedicated it;
– an example of our dedication to the continuous research of special and unexpected vineyards, grapes and wines as part of the Piemonte Attitude.

 

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