Top 10 Dolcetto

A widespread grape variety and beloved Piedmont wine, Dolcetto continues to grow in the hearts of many consumers. Here is our ranking of the top 10.

Native to Piedmont, where it is widespread, (and Liguria, where it takes the name Ormeasco), Dolcetto is among the region’s best-loved and most traditional varieties. This grape variety prefers hilly soils, as long as they are dry and not very fertile, is fairly resistant to disease, average yielding, and above all, its quality is consistent year after year.

The wine made from it has a beautiful ruby-purple color, fragrant and vinous aromas, and the right body combines good alcohol content: it is balanced in acidity and smoothness, and has a characteristic and pleasant bitterish aftertaste. This great pleasantness explains, together with the good quality/price ratio, the secret of its success, which crosses Piedmontese borders.

At harvest, Dolcetto (which, let us remember, is sweet in name only) is quite early, and it is the first wine of the vintage to be ready. In the best areas it gives a wine of good stuff, capable of aging for more than a few years. It has received DOC recognition in as many as seven areas of Piedmont, in each of which it expresses different nuances. The most robust and long-lived are those from Alba, Diano d’Alba and Dogliani (the latter Docg).

This is our ranking of the best Dolcettos, with Marziano Abbona’s Papà Celso towering above them all, followed by many on a par. A list of wines of the highest quality and great taste pleasure. To read the scores (where there are ex aequo the order is alphabetical), description and price, click on the name.

These wines are all 100% Dolcetto. We point out, off the charts, the Bricco del Drago di Poderi Colla, of the Langhe appellation, which calls for 85 percent Dolcetto with the balance Nebbiolo.