De Gusta, Wine Festival, La Morra

Posted in My Kind of People by Ben Brown Photography on July 31, 2013

Every year, La Morra, central to Piedmont wine producing, holds ‘De Gusta La Morra’ – Wine festival.  Wine producers from the region gather and celebrate the wine and promote their vine yards.  For a modest 5€, you receive an etched glass and pouch, and meander through all of the delights on offer.

The Piedmont region is famous for the Nebbiolo , which is a red Italian wine grape variety where it makes the Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) wines of Barolo, Barbaresco, Gattinara and Ghemme.

Nebbiolo is thought to derive its name from the Italian word nebbia which means “fog.” During harvest, which generally takes place late in October, a deep, intense fog sets into the Langhe region.

 Nebbiolo produces lightly colored red wines which can be highly tannic in youth with scents of tar and roses. As they age, the wines take on a characteristic brick-orange hue at the rim of the glass and mature to reveal other aromas and flavors such as violets, tar, wild herbs, cherries, raspberries, truffles, tobacco, and prunes.

Long a major wine growing region, it was illegal in La Morra to cut down a Nebbiolo vine. The penalties for this offense range from a fine, to having a hand amputated to hanging.