THE TERRITORY

The production zone of Dolcetto di Dogliani is located in southern Piedmont, in the lower part of the Langhe, which in this case is the highest and coolest area due to its vicinity to the mountains of the Ligurian Appennines and the Maritime Alps. Its climate is most congenial and highly suited to growing Dolcetto, a grape that suffers from excessive heat and preserves its delicate scents only if subject to favourably balanced temperatures. These hills, ranging from 250 to 700 metres in altitude, developed along the ridges that rose up from the ancient seas. They were then modelled by local rivers and watercourses into a series of "langhe", or tongues of land, that form a complex, ramified pattern. Dogliani's territory acts as a bridge between the Langhe of Barolo, its neighbour to the north, and the Alta Langhe of hazelnuts and sheep rearing to the south; it lies between the plains of Cuneo to the west, where farmsteads teem with livestock, and the Belbo Valley to the east, famous for the heady aromas of the Moscato grape.
It is a territory not yet fully understood, which has maintained, alongside the vineyards, other agricultural activities: groves of hazelnuts, arable crop-lands and pastures dedicated to raising livestock, as well as native woodlands; it is a territory that has lived on the margins of the fortunes of neighbouring zones, in spite of the great potential expressed by a number of its varieties. Its inhabitants have preserved intact, those exceptional Piedmont qualities of modesty, obstinacy, and perseverance, as well as an attachment to tradition, which is reflected in their wines. The municipalities that comprise the Dolcetto di Dogliani area are traditional rural villages: some, like Dogliani, Farigliano and Clavesana are situated along rivers that divide the plains from the hills, and were founded in Roman or pre-Roman times; while the others, Bastia, Belvedere Langhe, Cigliè, Monchiero, Rocca Cigliè, Roddino, Somano, have all been documented back to the early Middle Ages and were built high up on the hills to defend themselves against the Saracen invasions.
Historically tied to the Parish of Mondovì, rather than Alba, the territory has, for centuries, been used to fractionalization and an autonomy that originated with the Aleramico Marchisate; it feels an affinity with the more famous, yet very different Langhe neighbours, while at the same time, claims with pride its individuality.