Monsecco, Colline Novaresi Nebbiolo, “Pratogrande” Piedmont, Italy 2016 (750mL)

There is no more perfect wine for the fall and winter months than Monsecco’s “Pratogrande” Nebbiolo. It smells like the approaching winter: warm spices, dried fruits, and a hint of smoke, like leaves burning in the distance. Grown in the hills north of Novara, in northern Piedmont, this is a wine to take refuge in, a wine that counters a biting chill by biting back—without taking too much of a bite out of your bank account. The Pratogrande is sourced from hillside vineyards that skirt the famed Gattinara and Ghemme DOCGs (Monsecco makes wines from both designations) and, with its “Colline Novaresi” designation, is to those DOCGs what “Langhe Nebbiolo” is to Barolo—the “little brother” wine that often becomes the star of the show. 

The wine is 100% Nebbiolo, and, having been given ample time to knit together and broaden aromatically, it is singing right now. In the glass, it’s a medium garnet red moving to a pink/brick orange rim, with the full array of Nebbiolo aromas rushing from the glass to greet you: dried cherry, rose petal, blood orange peel, tobacco, leather, tar, underbrush, and lots more. It is medium-bodied and bright, with the gentlest nip of tannin lending backbone and a recognizable array of “secondary” aromas/flavors beginning to creep into the mix. The perfect red for the Holiday Season!