Piedmont. Pelissero
Pelissero is a family owned producer located in the city of Treiso in the north western part of Piedmont. It is most famous for their Barbaresco wines sourced from three parcels: Vanotu, Tulin and Nubiola. The 38 hectares of the vineyards are planted with Nebbiolo, however they also plant Barbera, Dolcetto and even Riesling! The winery, run today by Giorgio Pelissero, cares deeply for the tradition. As our lovely host – Mara – explained to us, from a business perspective it would make sense to replace Dolcetto with Nebbiolo.
However his grandfather was very fond of Dolcetto, and therefore to honour him the Dolcetto is still being cultivated. The estate is working on five parcels situated close to Alba: Vanotu, Tulin, Piani, Augenta and Munfrina. Vanotu was the first vineyard to be established by Pelissero in 1960. The soils are limestone-rich, south-facing slopes. It hardly comes as a surprise that Vanotu is currently the flagship wine, with the special reserve bottling occurring in 2010 to celebrate 50 years anniversary.
Our visit to the winery started off with learning that we have the pleasure to visit new headquarters. The 360 panoramic view was simply stunning and further boosted the experience of the lovely tasting we were offered. Rigadin 2018 Riesling was a very interesting wine. Light green in colour, very flowery. Lilac, sour green apple and light almond aroma. We have decided to get a bottle.
The Dolcetto and Barbera were very rich and balanced however the Barbaresco’s stole the show. Vanotu was very rich and dense. The aromas of dark chocolate, spices, leather came through. However the wine still retained very good freshness and can be placed in a cellar for a while to round out further. However even today we found it quite delightful.
Barbaresco Tulin was on the other side of the flavour spectrum. It gave up more fruity character than Vanotu. Red cherry dominated the nose. The tannins were nicely polished but definitely in need of more time to round out. It was great to compare and contrast these two great wines one after another just to see the focus on the terroir. Nubiola had a scent of black cherry, licorice and leather. However the tannins were very powerful and we found it difficult to read through them at this point of time. We decided to get a bottle of Vanotu, however we will be patient with this one!
All in all this was a great visit and an amazing tasting. When the weather is good the panoramic view from the new Pelissero HQ is simply stunning.
