David Gleave MW is a veritable expert of the Langhe, having spent the last 40 years exploring its ‘topsy-turvy topography’ on foot as well as on wheels. Despite the ubiquity of flagship wines Barolo and Barbaresco, the MW still views the Langhe’s hills as ‘the last of the great undiscovered wine regions’. His first book, ‘Barolo & Barbaresco: The Primacy of the Vine’, is set to change that.
In episode 291 of The Drinking Hour podcast, he talks host David Kermode through the wine region’s biggest ‘bumps in the road’ over the last 70 years, from ‘oxidation and Marsala-like character in the 50s and 60s’ to the ‘thick veneer of oak in the 90s’, and explains why today’s changing climate may actually be advantageous to the Langhe’s ‘cantankerous, grumpy and irascible’ grape, Nebbiolo. Despite its dubious reputation, the grape variety remains Gleave’s greatest love. He says: ‘This is going to sound terribly pretentious, but Robert Graves once said that you should be able to shave to a great poem: it makes your hair stand on end. Nebbiolo almost does that at times for me.’
Conversation turns to recent remarkable vintages and the evolving quality of the Langhe’s food scene. Forty years ago, Gleave would have recommended just one of the region’s restaurants. Today, a return to simplicity has allowed local gastronomy to flourish.
Discover more episodes of The Drinking Hour with David Kermode here.
