2023 Pio Cesare L'Altro Chardonnay

The grapes for L'Altro come from various vineyards owned by the family. These are the vineyards "Il Bricco" in Treiso from the Barbaresco region, "Bossania" in Trezzo Tinella and "Colombaro" in the Barolo area near Serralunga d'Alba. After harvest, the grapes are fermented in stainless steel vats under controlled temperatures. The aging of the juice is done separately. The small part of Sauvignon matures in stainless steel vats and the Chardonnay matures in barriques for a short period, after which the base wines are blended. L'Altro is Italian for 'the other'. The winery named this wine "L'Altro" to distinguish it from their first Chardonnay ever produced, Piodilei.

The Langhe L'Altro has a clear straw yellow color in the glass with in the nose fine citrus, butter, honey and peach, nectarine, delicious yellow fruit.. In the mouth this wine is elegant and juicy, at the same time beautifully powerful and rich, ripe, small butter of the chardonnay, lively and invigorating. Excellent with fish dishes, sole with butter sauce, mussels, chicken, salads and of course perfect as an aperitif.

Did you know: Chardonnay from the high part of Piemonte is becoming more and more popular. The wines always have a good freshness and in terms of/price comparison they are recommended. Also the Stissa from Montaribaldi is a good example.

ABOUT PIO CESARE

The Pio Cesare house is one of the classic producers of the region. Based in Alba, the 'wine capital' of this region, and founded in 1881 by Cesare Pio. His name has been retained in reverse order as the name of this trading house and family business. It is still in family hands, because at the head is Pio Boffa, the great-grandson of the founder. He continues the work of the family in an excellent way, and in the meantime is also responsible for a number of modernizations and changes in this beautiful, traditional company. Pio Cesare has always been a trading house, which obtained the grapes on contract from winegrowers in the region. This is also a common practice in this region, which has many small winegrowers with small plots of vineyard, who are always ready to sell their grapes to one of the trading houses. In that respect, the region is a bit like Burgundy, with all those different vineyards, each with its own name, divided into small vineyard plots, each owned by a different winegrower.

Pio Boffa decided that it was good for the quality of the wines to also own vineyards. Over the years he has bought a number of vineyards, mainly in the famous areas of Barolo and Barbaresco. The vineyard property now covers 45 hectares, and produces some of the house's finest wines, with a few special vineyard cuvées as top performers. These are only released in good years.

The necessary changes have also been made in the winemaking. A very restrained vinification has been chosen, in which the wine is left alone as much as possible, so with as few interventions as possible. Each wine receives the individual treatment that best suits that particular wine, with a shorter or longer fermentation on the skins, followed or not by a classic maturation on Slavonian oak, the traditional wood of the region. It produces wines with a classic finesse, balanced and complex, worthy representatives of this special wine region.