The names have an other-worldly romantic ring about them.
Of Tuscan and Piedmonte village life, of church bells ringing day and night, lively aperitivo bars and rustic trattorias serving pastas, pizzas and local wines.
Among them Sangiovese, Nebbiolo, Montepulciano, Aglianico, Barbera, Nero d’Avola – and that’s just a taste of the red varieties originating from across several Italian regions and now finding a welcoming home in South Australia, especially the Adelaide Hills.
Their presence here has become so ingrained that the Adelaide Hills Wine Region has even established a specific class for Italian varietal reds in its annual wine show judging.
Meanwhile, in the show’s rosé category, a good number are made also from the same fruit.
We’re not alone in the rise of such a phenomenon, with neighbouring regions Langhorne Creek and McLaren Vale also welcoming a similar range of wine styles.
But in the Hills its climatic and multiple geographic conditions are capable of nurturing a wider set of what up to now have been called “alternative” or “emerging” varieties beyond the classic reds, Pinot Noir and Shiraz (aka Syrah).
The capacity for such winemaking diversity is now a genuine calling card for the Hills region, and arguably a key to its ongoing success.
Even as you drill more closely into the world of Italian varieties, the Hills offers greater potential than elsewhere for the prized varieties such as Nebbiolo, Barbera and Dolcetto, which originate in the cooler foothills of Italy’s northern Piedmonte region.
Several vineyard sites across the north, south and central Hills districts have proven track records of delivering these varieties with a touch of local class.
The Amadio vineyard, between Kersbrook and Williamstown, has an extraordinary array of grapevines in the ground and is a key source for many small winemakers as well as its own estate Amadio label.
Longview Vineyard at Macclesfield also provides for a loyal following of boutique producers as well as its own highly successful labels.
Then there’s the Gumeracha-based Protero Vineyard, now under the steerage of Stephen Pannell who has been making Nebbiolo out of it for 20 years, originally for its founders Frank and Rose Baldasso and since 2019 under the SC Pannell umbrella.
Stephen is adamant he is not trying to imitate the wines from Piedmonte, and his Hills iterations are wines of their own place and time.
Everything in the vineyard has to be right in terms of night temperatures cooling down so that grape sugars and tannins can mature evenly over a longer period, gathering the concentration, intensity and aromatics desired that make Nebbiolo, especially, such a revered variety.
“It needs a continental climate which in Australia isn’t easy to find,” Stephen says.
“The Hills seems to be one of the regions that we can make this wine outside of Barolo (its home in Italy).
“It doesn’t seem to transfer to other places.
“It just works (here).
“But I want to make it really clear – we’re not making Barolo, we’re making Australian Nebbiolo.”
Likewise with the other northern Italian red varieties he’s crafting at Gumeracha, Barbera and Dolcetto, which fulfil his desire for a style of wine that focuses on their savoury elements and earthy tannin mouthfeel.
They are wines with vibrant natural acidity, varieties that he doesn’t have to manipulate too much in the winery, and that complement a contemporary Australian diet that reflects foods from Italy, other Mediterranean countries and also a wide circle of Asian cuisines.
“That’s the way we should use wine,” he says.
“I now see the future of the Adelaide Hills is with wines like Nebbiolo, and if we are one of the very few places in the world where you can make Nebbiolo outside of Barolo, and it’s probably the hottest red grape right now in the world, isn’t that an enormous opportunity?”
It was with a similar potential and foresight that the Longview Vineyard at Macclesfield was founded by the late Duncan MacGillivray in the 1990s where, among more traditional varieties like Shiraz and Cabernet, Nebbiolo was planted in 1997.
The vineyard was acquired by a branch of the well-known hotel and liquor merchant Saturno family a decade later, since then forging an enviable estate reputation steered by Peter Saturno.
Peter’s introduction to wine came from his Italian and family hospitality roots, but it wasn’t until he was working in New York that he was exposed to the finer famous wines of Piedmonte.
His love of Nebbiolo, especially, has continued since, now immersed more deeply than ever in the produce emanating from Longview, where his team also cultivates another northern Italian red star, Barbera.
Further similar varieties are in the pipeline, Peter says.
While his family ancestry lies in Italy’s Friuli region, Peter is committed to continuing the Longview story via his favoured varieties.
“Our connection with Piedmonte is not about lineage,” he says. “It’s about passion.”
The vineyard’s unique location is one of the keys that unlocks that excitement.
At the end of a valley rising north of the Strathalbyn district, cooling breezes from Lake Alexandrina and the Southern Ocean funnel up the into hills and gullies at Longview, providing ideal ripening conditions among the site’s multitude of aspects and soil variations.
“We’re very blessed to have this site,” Peter says.
“We’ve got the warmth and the diurnal range (lower evening temperatures to daytime).
“We’re understanding more and more about getting everything right in the vineyard.
“We’re backing ourselves with these Italian varieties.
“It’s something we hang our hat on.”
The commitment can be seen alone in Longview’s Nebbiolo range – it comes in a sparkling style, a rosé, a friendly bistro red, and finally a more serious, top shelf expression.
The Barbera variety also is turning heads, and most likely there’ll be more Italian origin varieties in the future.
Sam Scott also has thrown his lot in with the Italians via his La Prova brand, focusing on Sangiovese, Nebbiolo, the white grapes Pinot Grigio and Fiano and another red, Aglianico, which is the fruit behind his much-loved Rosato, which recently won the trophy for best rosé wine at the National Wine Show in Canberra, and before that the same class trophy at last year’s Adelaide Hills Wine Show.
Sourcing much of his fruit from the Amadio vineyard in Kersbrook – a vitally important site for many smaller winemakers venturing into the Italian varietal world – Sam saw that those vines suited hotter and drier conditions, and ripened later in the summer and autumn seasons, retaining their natural acids and escaping the heat stress that impacted many of the traditional grapes.
“It’s important to note that these varieties grow really well here, but the first thing is that they are delicious wines,” Sam says.
“They have a real, genuine place in our culture and lifestyle, particularly as we’ve seen such an explosion of restaurants and cafes and the high level of food and the hospitality that comes from those cultures.”
After exploring many other warmer and drier regions with these styles, he decided that the Hills was the ideal place to dig deeper into the genre.
“We are in a long, skinny region between the Barossa and McLaren Vale, where both ends are lower and closer to the warmer districts, while it’s cooler in the centre,” he says.
“With so many different aspects, we’ve really got a great opportunity to try just about any of these varieties.
“What the Hills brings to all its wines is a vitality and energy.
“And there are a lot of beautiful wines being made from all these varieties.”
