Northern Italy has been on Simon and Heather’s hit list of places to visit for many years, and as keen skiers and before Florrie their daughter goes off to school, they decided to take a few weeks out to ski and also visit some of their favourite producers.
Their first producer visit was to the Carema – which is just along from the town of Aosta, and close to the ski resorts of Courmayeur and Champoluc.
Most wine regions are, in our opinion, some of the most stunning places to visit and the Carema is not an exception to this! In fact the scenery is some of the most dramatic and beautiful that we have seen. The vineyards planted with mainly Nebbiolo and Erbaluce are perched on the side of the foothills of the mountains in ancient terraces. The vines are planted on pergola’s which overlook the church and smoky rooftops.
Winemaker Gian Marco Viano is a humble man and passionate about his craft, and having previously been working as a sommelier he is very knowledgeable too. On meeting we jumped into his dusty work van and sped up through the winding village roads. These roads were clearly laid before cars were invented as his only just squeezed through up to a viewpoint near his old vineyards.
These wines are made in minute quantity, with Carema in total for the region spanning just 16 hectares, Gian Marco has just 2 of these! He explained in the past the region was known for quantity, rather than quality and this has finally changed. As with most wine regions, climate change has affected the wines, but at the moment for this region it has been in a good way. Where lower altitude Nebbiolo’s from Barolo and the Langhe have become bigger wines with more fruit and alcohol, the wines from the Carema have are now the fresher, more drinkable style of this wonderful grape variety with lower alcohol, more delicate and fragrant notes but still with serious ageability.
After visiting the vineyards we drove down to his cellar in town to taste the wines.
Vino Bianco 2022 – Made from the native grape grown in the area called Erbaluce. The pergola system in the vineyards help keep the acidity in the grapes. Halfway through fermentation the wine is put into barrel to finish fermentation. This white is beautifully textured (due to malolactic fermentation) and is quite creamy on the finish. 2,000 btls produced.
Canavese 2022 – A wonderfully fragrant nose, wild berries, cracked black pepper, fresh and slightly earthy. Grapes from just outside of the Carema DOC. All aged in stainless steel.
Carema 2022 – Single vineyard site. Delicate berry fruit, wild berries and spicy notes on the finish.