Appellation · Italy
Dolcetto d’Alba
The Langhe’s early-drinking red — soft, dark and faintly bitter, and despite the name not sweet at all.
Medium-bodied dry red, deep purple, with blackberry and plum, low acidity, soft tannin and a faintly bitter almond finish. Drink young.
About Dolcetto d’Alba
Dolcetto means "little sweet one", which refers to the grape being pleasant to eat rather than to the wine, which is dry.
It ripens early — weeks before Nebbiolo — and is planted on the cooler, higher sites where Nebbiolo would not finish. That is its role in the Langhe: it lets a grower use land Nebbiolo cannot.
The wine is deep purple, low in acidity, moderately tannic and often finishes with a faint almond bitterness. It is meant to be drunk within a couple of years.
Dogliani, a nearby appellation, makes the most serious Dolcetto and has its own DOCG.
What the name means
- Legal name
- Dolcetto d’Alba DOC
- Type
- Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC)
- Set by
- MASAF
- Recognised
- 1974
- Regulates
- Origin, plus grape varieties, maximum yields, minimum ageing.
The delimited area, permitted varieties and their proportions, maximum yields, minimum alcohol and — for riserva and similar terms — minimum ageing.
Grapes
Wines from here
Rules worth knowing
Confirmed in the EU register
Dolcetto d'Alba is registered as a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), file number PDO-IT-A1142, protected at EU level since 1982.
Article 107 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013
Only the rules that change what to expect in the glass or on the label. WineHQ does not reproduce production specifications, and each entry carries the date it was last checked because appellation rules change.
The designation is confirmed above. WineHQ has not read this appellation’s production specification, so it publishes no yields, ageing minima or permitted-variety lists for it — those come from the document linked above, not from a summary of it.
What to eat, and how to serve it
Derived from this region’s signature styles. Each is listed separately, because a region does not have one serving temperature.
Where to go next
Places worth trying if you like this one — neighbours, rivals, and the obvious step across.
- Barbera d’Alba — Barbera grown in the Langhe alongside Nebbiolo, generally riper and fuller than the Asti version.
- Barolo — Nebbiolo from eleven communes of the Langhe, and the most tannic, most perfumed and slowest-maturing red wine Italy makes.
Sources
Sources consulted
- Italian DOP and IGP wine register — Ministero dell’agricoltura, della sovranità alimentare e delle foreste (MASAF)