{"title":"Dolcetto","description":"\u003cp\u003eDolcetto is a black grape variety native to the Piedmont region in northwest Italy, cherished for its ability to produce soft, fruit-forward red wines with relatively low acidity and a pleasing bitter finish. Known for its early ripening, Dolcetto yields wines that are typically deep in color, offering aromas of black cherry and licorice, making them highly approachable in their youth. The grape is most commonly associated with wines from Dogliani, Alba, and Asti, where the varietal's characteristics are celebrated in their purest form. While not as prestigious as Nebbiolo-based wines like Barolo and Barbaresco, Dolcetto holds a beloved place in Piedmontese wine culture for its straightforward, deliciously fruity profile and its versatility with food.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"le-marie-dolcetto-2024","title":"Le Marie Dolcetto 2024","description":"","brand":"Anvil","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48370426118367,"sku":null,"price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0439\/7436\/1248\/files\/P1140619.jpg?v=1768445923"},{"product_id":"cristina-prandi-dolcetto-dalba-2024","title":"Cristina Prandi Dolcetto d'Alba 2024","description":"","brand":"Old World","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48384528384223,"sku":null,"price":47.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0439\/7436\/1248\/files\/P1210663.jpg?v=1769058298"},{"product_id":"giuseppe-mascarello-dolcetto-dalba-santo-stefano-di-perno-2023","title":"Giuseppe Mascarello Dolcetto d'Alba Santo Stefano di Perno 2023","description":"","brand":"Natural","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48585728721119,"sku":null,"price":48.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0439\/7436\/1248\/files\/P3131073.jpg?v=1773464806"},{"product_id":"trediberri-bricco-mollea-dogliani-dolcetto-2024","title":"Trediberri Dogliani 2024","description":"","brand":"Old World","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49041467244767,"sku":null,"price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0439\/7436\/1248\/files\/P5010113.jpg?v=1777680981"},{"product_id":"e-pira-dolcetto-dalba-2024","title":"E. Pira Dolcetto d'Alba 2024","description":"","brand":"Giuliana","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49685531427039,"sku":null,"price":36.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0439\/7436\/1248\/files\/P5310242.jpg?v=1780369434"},{"product_id":"rosso-bacher-vino-rosso-2023","title":"Rosso Bacher Vino Rosso 2023","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Land\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMonforte d'Alba is one of the eleven villages of Barolo, but this is a Langhe red rather than a Barolo, made from the everyday grapes that grow alongside Nebbiolo on the same hills. The Langhe is a landscape of steep, folded hills in southern Piedmont, where calcareous marl soils and wide day-to-night temperature swings give the reds their perfume and lift. Marisa Bacher's plot sits on a hilltop in Monforte planted to old Dolcetto and Barbera, some of the vines around 60 years old. These are the grapes Piedmontese growers have always kept for their own table, and on this soil they carry real freshness.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Wine\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA blend of Dolcetto and Barbera, the two traditional workhorse reds of the Langhe. Dolcetto gives deep color, dark plum and blackberry, and a slightly bitter almond snap on the finish; Barbera adds bright acidity and red-cherry lift. It is fermented in cement and aged in steel and fiberglass rather than oak, which keeps the fruit clear and unmasked. The 2023 vintage is worth a note: a wet spring brought heavy downy mildew pressure across the Langhe, a real test for an organic grower, and the wine that came through is fresh, with slightly lower alcohol than the hot 2022. Serve it with a light chill.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe People\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMarisa Bacher grew up in Valsesia in northern Piedmont, where her family raised dairy cows at the foot of Monte Rosa. She moved south to Barolo and has worked since 2016 at Cascina Fontana, the Barolo house of Mario Fontana, handling cellar work while learning the region. In 2020 she leased a small plot of old Dolcetto and Barbera vines in Monforte d'Alba and began making wine under her own name. She farms and raises the wine organically, without certification, and does nearly everything herself, from the vineyard to the cellar. Rosso Bacher is the entry point to a tiny, hands-on project built on old vines and minimal intervention.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFood Pairing\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA weeknight Piedmontese red, built for the table rather than the cellar. Pour it with tajarin or tagliatelle in a simple ragù, a plate of salumi and Castelmagno cheese, mushroom risotto, or a sausage and pepper skillet. The bright acidity and Dolcetto's slight bitterness cut through fat and salt, and a light chill makes it even more refreshing. Open it young and drink it freely.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Willette Wines","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50566845694175,"sku":null,"price":32.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0439\/7436\/1248\/files\/P3191125.jpg?v=1773976727"},{"product_id":"giacomo-fenocchio-dolcetto-dalba-2024","title":"Giacomo Fenocchio Dolcetto d'Alba 2024","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Land\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is a hectare inside Bussia planted to Dolcetto, and it belongs to the Fenocchio family. Bussia is one of Barolo's great crus, the zone Giacomo Fenocchio called the heart of the appellation, and virtually anyone else holding a hectare of it would have Nebbiolo in the ground. The parcel sits at 300 meters in Monforte d'Alba, directly in front of the cantina, on Helvetian soils of clay sediment, blue marl and tuff, the same geological package underneath the estate's Barolo. Claudio Fenocchio likes to point out from his terrace how small the Barolo zone really is: two hills to the left of his Bussia vineyard is Cannubi, the next hill to the right is Villero, and Bussia and Villero sit at essentially the same elevation, with Cannubi about twenty meters lower. The Dolcetto here does not get a lesser address. It gets exactly the same one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Wine\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne hundred percent Dolcetto. Fermentation and maceration on the skins run about ten days, which is short by this cellar's standards and long by the standards of a grape most producers rush to bottle. Aging splits evenly: six months in stainless steel, then six months in the large Slavonian oak casks that are the only wood Claudio Fenocchio uses anywhere on the property. Production is roughly 750 cases. The 2024 season in the Langhe was wet and demanding, with spring rain and midsummer heat spikes squeezing the picking into narrow windows between weather systems; the region's wines came in around a degree to a degree and a half lower in alcohol than average, with the acidity that implies. None of that is a hardship for Dolcetto. Dark plum and black cherry, violets, and the faint bitter-almond note Dolcetto always leaves at the end, over low acid by Piedmontese standards and a chalky, gently drying tannin.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe People\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFive generations of Fenocchios have farmed Monforte d'Alba since 1864, and for the first century of that the wine mostly went to neighbors. That changed in 1964, when Giacomo Fenocchio took the estate over with the stated ambition of making the finest wine in Barolo. He bought prime parcels in Cannubi and Castellero, but his conviction never moved off Bussia. When he died in April of 1989 his son Claudio inherited young, at precisely the moment Barolo was splitting into modernist and traditionalist camps and the modernists were the ones getting rich. Claudio did not follow. He kept the long fermentations on skins and aged only in large Slavonian casks; the estate still bottles a Bussia Riserva that spends ninety days on its skins. He now farms fourteen hectares across Barolo, Castiglione Falletto and Monforte, producing about 8,000 cases a year. Skurnik, the importer, lists the farming as sustainable.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFood Pairing\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDolcetto's low acid and soft drying tannin make it a fat-and-salt wine rather than an acid-and-tomato one. Start with tajarin in butter and sage, where the tannin does the cutting that acid would normally handle. Coarse Piedmontese salumi works on salt alone, which pushes the plum fruit forward. Bagna cauda, all anchovy and garlic and warm olive oil with raw vegetables to dredge through it, is the regional answer, and the wine's bitter-almond finish lines up with the garlic rather than arguing with it. A wedge of young Toma, still mild and buttery, will soften the tannin down to nothing. This is what Piedmont drinks on a weeknight while the Barolo waits in the cellar, and there is no shame whatsoever in doing the same.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harvest","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51313525522655,"sku":null,"price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0439\/7436\/1248\/files\/P9030260.jpg?v=1788538496"},{"product_id":"lady-of-the-sunshine-bassi-vineyard-dolcetto-2025","title":"Lady of the Sunshine Bassi Vineyard Dolcetto 2025","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Land\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBassi is a ranch before it is a vineyard: 29 acres of vines inside a 112-acre coastal ranch above Avila Beach. The Dolcetto is not part of the main planting. It sits on a small backyard slope above the eastern side of the property, 15 rows, hand-farmed because nothing larger fits. The soil is the sandstone found across the ranch, grading from outcropping to sand deposits. What sets Bassi apart from its neighbors is the absence of a cooling funnel. No wind gap channels cold air through the property, so it runs warmer than the Giugnis' other coastal sites even sitting 1.2 miles from the water. Dolcetto ripens early, which is exactly why a Piedmontese grape has a chance on ground this close to the Pacific.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Wine\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDolcetto from the California coast is close to a one-off, and this one is built along Alba lines. Fruit was picked in late September, destemmed completely, and fermented with native yeast in 228-liter upright barrels, punched down by hand daily. It was pressed in a wooden basket press at dryness, then aged ten months in neutral 80-gallon barrels and racked straight to bottle, no fining or filtration, minimal sulfur. Finished alcohol is 12.5 percent. Full destemming and gentle punch-downs keep the tannin powdery instead of grippy. Sour cherry, cranberry, dried violet and crushed stone, with the bitter-almond snap on the finish that is the Dolcetto signature. The 2025 Central Coast season was cool and dry, with below-average rainfall and very little heat, so ripeness arrived at low sugars with acidity intact.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe People\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGina and Mikey Giugni bought Bassi in July 2024 from Mike and Cheri Sinor, who had farmed it since 2013, in a direct deal with no sales agents. They had bought fruit off the ranch since 2019 and wanted the security of farming it themselves. The purchase closed out the final year of biodynamic conversion, and Demeter certification came through that same month across all 42 acres they farm, four sites in all. The approach is regenerative as much as biodynamic: they make their own compost and compost teas, plant diverse cover crops and pollinator meadows, graze animals through the rows in spring, and do not till. Mikey runs Scar of the Sea alongside this. For reds the cellar uses a two-ton wooden basket press and old French oak, with one racking before bottling.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFood Pairing\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDolcetto is a weeknight red in Piedmont, poured cool alongside whatever is on the stove, and that is how to use this one. Brown hot Italian sausage hard with peppers and onions and let the sour-cherry fruit cut the fat. Agnolotti, or any filled pasta finished in butter and sage, works because the tannin stays fine-grained. Grill a mushroom pizza with real char on the crust and the stony side of the wine finds the fungus. On a cold night, braise chicken thighs with tomato, olives and rosemary. At 12.5 percent, after 20 minutes in the fridge, this is a bottle you can open on a Wednesday and actually finish.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Craft","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67575130980575,"sku":null,"price":45.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0439\/7436\/1248\/files\/P9270420.jpg?v=1790548337"},{"product_id":"luciano-sandrone-dolcetto-dalba-2024","title":"Luciano Sandrone Dolcetto d'Alba 2024","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Land\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSandrone's Dolcetto is not grown on leftover ground. All eleven parcels sit inside the Barolo DOCG zone, on slopes that could legally be planted to Nebbiolo and sold for several times the price. The named sites include Rivassi and Crosia in Barolo, Castelletto in Monforte d'Alba, Cascina Pe Mol and Ravera in Novello, and Rocche di San Nicola. The family selects for what they call white soils, pale ground heavy in limestone and silt with a thin intrusion of sand, on steep slopes mostly between 350 and 400 meters. Limestone and elevation are what keep Dolcetto, a variety that ripens early and loses acid fast, from going flat and jammy. The name means little sweet one, which describes the grape, not the wine, which is dry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Wine\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLuciano Sandrone Dolcetto d'Alba 2024 is 100% Dolcetto, picked September 17 to 24. The eleven parcels are vinified separately. Fruit is destemmed and crushed, then given a gentle warm maceration of roughly a day under CO2 before indigenous yeasts take over 24 to 36 hours later. Fermentation runs about 14 days in open-topped steel tanks with five to nine days of skin contact, malolactic follows, and the lots are then blended in the Langhe assemblage tradition and held three months in bottle. No oak. Alcohol is 12.5%. The 2024 season was difficult: a dry start, late-March rain, mixed flowering, then a cool stretch, July and August heat, September rain and a variable October. Sandrone deliberately extracted less this year, aiming at transparency rather than density. Dark purple, with red and black fruit, blueberry, violet and a mineral edge, ripe but quiet tannin, and fresh acidity carrying a long finish.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe People\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom 1978 through 1997, every bottle Luciano Sandrone made came out of his parents' garage. The purpose-built winery on the edge of Barolo village opened in 1998, twenty years after the first vintage, and the timing tells you something about how the family spends money: vineyards first, buildings last. That cellar is also what makes this wine possible. Fermenting eleven small Dolcetto parcels separately and blending at the end requires tank space nobody keeps in a garage, and it is a real expense to incur on the least expensive wine in the range. Barbara Sandrone, Luciano's daughter, has run winery operations since 1989 and handles distribution and visitors; her uncle Luca works the technical side.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFood Pairing\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDolcetto is the Piedmontese answer to a weeknight. Serve it slightly cool with a salumi board of soppressata and mortadella, where the acidity resets the palate between slices. Grilled sausage with braised lentils and a hit of red wine vinegar matches the dark fruit and the earth underneath it. A mushroom and fontina pizza, or a plate of gnocchi with sage butter, both work because the tannin stays low enough not to compete. This is the bottle you keep two of, for the nights you did not plan dinner.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Giuliana","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67801295585503,"sku":null,"price":26.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0439\/7436\/1248\/files\/PA010449.jpg?v=1790911200"},{"product_id":"ca-di-press-dolcetto-dalba-2024","title":"Ca' di Press Dolcetto d'Alba 2024","description":"","brand":"Old World","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":68330139484383,"sku":null,"price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0439\/7436\/1248\/files\/PA290617.jpg?v=1793317952"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0439\/7436\/1248\/collections\/dolcetto.webp?v=1793249744","url":"https:\/\/denverwinemerchant.com\/collections\/dolcetto.oembed","provider":"Denver Wine Merchant","version":"1.0","type":"link"}