History

Nebbiolo — the grape variety that produces Barolo and Barbaresco — has been cultivated in the Langhe since at least the thirteenth century (documented in the communal statutes of Rivoli in 1268, where it is referred to as “nibiol”); the name refers to the nebbia (fog) that covers the hills in autumn when the grapes are harvested, a distinctive feature of the Piedmontese autumn climate that delays the harvest later than any other major Italian wine region. The wine from the hills of Barolo was supplied to the Savoy court in Turin from the sixteenth century onward; King Victor Emmanuel II and Camillo Cavour (who owned vineyards in Grinzane and Cavour respectively, both in the Barolo zone) were central figures in the creation of the modern style of Barolo in the 1830s-1840s, when the French enologist Louis Oudart (working for Count Camillo Benso di Cavour) adapted the winemaking techniques used in Bordeaux to the Nebbiolo grape, producing a dry, tannic, long-lived wine instead of the sweet or semi-sweet wine that had been common before.

The UNESCO inscription (2014) recognised both the exceptional beauty of the Langhe vineyard landscape — the geometrically precise rows of vines on the south-facing slopes, the hilltop villages, and the contrast of vineyard and woodland — and the long continuity of the human tradition that had created it: 700+ years of viticulture on the same slopes, in some cases by the same families.