Wine of the week: an absolute diva from Piemonte

(Image credit: 2019 Timorasso Piccolo Derthona)

published 22 January 2021

2019 Timorasso Piccolo Derthona, Colli Tortonesi, La Spinetta, Piemonte, Italy

Superstar winemaker Giorgio Rivetti is most famous for his trio of masterful Piemonte reds, Barbarescos Gallina, Starderi and Valeirano. He has ventured south to Tuscany, too, where his rich, layered, oak-soaked style of red winemaking works well with his various “Super-Tuscan” incarnations. But his most remarkable recent release is, shock-horror, a white wine, and it comes from the little-known Colli Tortonesi region of Piemonte. Situated some 50 miles to the east of Alba, the wines from the hills to the east of the town of Tortona are starting to register on curious, wine-geek palates.

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Best-known for producing workman-like versions of the red grape barbera, it is the super-rare, indigenous white grape timorasso that has shone a spotlight on this region. I always seek out examples of timorasso when I tour Piemonte, but I have never tasted one as spellbinding as this. There are no tricks whatsoever in the winemaking, just a discreet period of lees contact and then it is bottled without delay. Fresh onto our shelves, this is one of the most beguiling wines of the moment. With a flavour silhouette reminiscent of a Premier Cru Chablis, but with more exoticism of stone fruit and honeysuckle on the nose and a fleshier mid-palate, this is an absolute diva of a wine and the value, given its illustrious heritage, is staggering.

• Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition’s Communicator award (MatthewJukes.com)

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Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’. He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner.

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy. His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.