Le Marie, Pinerolese - 2024

Fast Facts:

Winemaker(s): Valerio Raviolo
Region: Barge → Pinerolese DOC → Piedmont → Italy
Varietal(s): Dolcetto
Terroir: Red schist with mineral salts, alpine foothills at 400-450m elevation, cool mountain climate
Serving Temp: 60-65°F

Somehow, the Pinerolese got away from everyone. The region has been making wine since at least 1203, when the first documents praising its quality were recorded. Leonardo Da Vinci wrote admiringly of Monviso wines in 1511, and then the glory largely faded: the DOC wasn't established until 1997, which tells you something about what happens to small mountain wine culture when consolidation and scale come for it. Sound familiar?

Valerio Raviolo started Le Marie in 2000, more or less as an act of faith in a place the wine world had moved on from. He and his wife Luigina work 10 hectares across 14 scattered plots at 400 to 450 meters on the slopes beneath Monte Viso and Monte Bracco. Their focus stays squarely on the varieties that belong to the region: Dolcetto, Barbera, Nebbiolo, Freisa, and the rare Malvasia Moscata clone native to the valley that's almost nowhere else. Their children Simona and Daniele have joined the operation, taking on more responsibility each vintage and making the winery hum more and more.

Dolcetto is native to the Piedmont, and it's all over the place. What makes this Dolcetto taste like nothing you've ever had comes down to the soil. Le Marie's vineyards sit on red schist dense with rare mineral salts, and the naturally low soil pH stresses the vines in the best ways. The rest of Piedmont is largely sedimentary, built on marine clay, limestone, and sandy marl. Red schist at altitude in the Alpine foothills is a genuine geological outlier for the region, and you can taste it: the wine is tart and bright and precise where most Piedmontese reds are broader and earthier. Valerio ferments and ages entirely in stainless steel, letting the grape's natural tannin and acidity stay fresh and true. This juice is light on its feet and drinks with easy energy that you typically wouldn't associate with anything in the Barolo orbit.

Why'd we pick it?

I love an outlier region, and Valerio built something gorgeous and real in a way that honored the land and his small production dream. Now his kids are stepping in to carry it forward, and while that is a tale as old as time, the continuity is becoming more and more rare these days.

Field Notes

• Tastes like: Tart wild cherry and plum with some herb, bitter almond, and a mineral punch in the finish. The tannins have grip but the acidity keeps everything fresh.
• Serve it: with a short fridge stint! An easy 15 minutes.
• Food pairings: If you can get your hands on some ramps, which are just starting to show at markets, toss 'em into some pork sausage and pasta, or wilt them into a white bean situation for a veg version. A wedge of Taleggio and crusty bread as a wild pocket snack could be just the ticket for an evening stroll.