Unesco

The vineyard landscapes of the Langhe-Roero and Monferrato are among the latest to be added to the World Heritage List, which includes 1,073 sites located in 167 countries all over the world. Italy is the top-scoring country, hosting 53 sites. The acknowledgement was given due to the uniqueness of this area, which is made up of a combination of a wide variety of soils, a careful selection of vine varieties – often indigenous – and skilful wine-making processes. The result is an area where the beauty of the wine-production cycle can be seen to its fullest extent.

Here's the ‘Barolo Langhe,’ the result of a path towards perfection, where humankind and nature have contributed to create a harmonious balance, enhancing the original location and elevating it into an excellent wine-making area on an international level. The hills are like well-tended gardens, the villages are gems of bricks and stone nestled between heaven and earth, and the wine cellars – ultra modern or traditional – are a monument to wine and its history. The Barolo core zone does not protect only the vineyards, but also the extraordinary heritage of the castles of Barolo, Serralunga and Castiglione Falletto, as well as the ancient Fontanafredda wine cellars.

Grinzane Cavour Castle is a unique mixture of history, culture, work, bonding with nature, research and human ingenuity. This gem of medieval architecture, that developed around the main tower – dating back to the first half of the 11^th century –, was renovated in 1960, on the occasion of the one hundredth anniversary of the Unification of Italy. It takes centre stage in the history of Barolo wine and it was the residence of Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour. In agreement with the Falletti Marquises, he invited the oenologist Louis Oudart to Piedmont, so that he could transform the Nebbiolo-based wine into the ‘wine of kings,’ following the example of Burgundy wines. Today, it houses the first regional winehouse in Piedmont and one of the most comprehensive ethnographic museums about local wine-making traditions.

In the heart of Monferrato, the home of Barbera d’Asti, the ‘Woman in Red’ is the queen of wines. Here, everything is related to this grape variety: here it was first grown and spread, and today it's still at the core of the cooperative of social wineries. Moreover, the area is strongly linked to wine culture, as the Bersano Museum can testify.

The steep hills of Canelli, mainly covered with white Muscat grapes devoted to Moscato d'Asti and Asti wines, are the most picturesque and the wildest of the Langhe. Asides from the beautiful vineyards, UNESCO also acknowledged the worth of the area for wine making: it's the capital of Italian sparkling wine. Here, towards the mid-19^th century, Carlo Gancia invented this wine and the spectacular wine cellars that are known today as ‘Underground Cathedrals’ began to appear in Canelli. These were built starting from the 19^th century and stretch over many kilometres underground. They were dug by hand from the marlstone and covered with cotto bricks, which allowed the conservation of the wine at a constant temperature.

Between Rosignano and Vignale Monferrato there is a succession of vineyards, woods, and fields. On the top of the hills you will see the villages built with white calcarenite stone, bright and compact. It was quarried from the sandstone and limestone quarries, heritage of the long-gone sea. This is where Monferrato Barbera wine is made and the whole area is dotted with dozens of infernòt: underground cellars, dug by hand and used to store prestigious wines.

Another noble red wine made with Nebbiolo vines is Barbaresco: it was first produced on the hills on the north-eastern side of Alba, on the banks of the Tanaro river. Two locations are particularly noteworthy: Neive, a very old town, once hosting important aristocratic families that left a series of magnificent Baroque palaces in the old town as their legacy; and Barbaresco, with its medieval tower overlooking the river, where the wine bearing the same name was developed over the centuries.