Timorasso Derthona DOC 2023

Wine description for Timorasso Derthona DOC 2023 by Vietti

Colour & appearance

Pale straw yellow with green reflections – youthful, fresh and clear in the glass.

Nose

A nose of exuberant yellow fruit: orange blossom, lemon zest, green mandarin and bergamot surge forward. Behind them lie white flowers, jasmine, apple, along with gentle spices such as white pepper, green almonds and tarragon. A fine layer of wet pebble and petrichor anchors the whole firmly in its origin.

Palate

A juicy, fruit-rich attack with green almond, tarragon and bergamot. A fine phenolic texture gives the wine grip and drive without weighing it down: upright stature, good poise, deliberately narrow shoulders. The ripe acidity is closely interwoven with the saline minerality – a field of tension that never upsets the wine’s drinking flow.

Finish

Long, fruity-floral, with persistent salinity and an echo of citrus zest.

Terroir & origin

The grapes come from the Colli Tortonesi in south-eastern Piedmont, from calcareous hillside sites around Monleale. With this wine, Vietti – based in Castiglione Falletto since 1873, the house that once saved Arneis and vinified the first single-vineyard Barolo in 1961 – looks deliberately beyond its own Langhe horizon.

Grape variety & vinification

Timorasso, an indigenous white variety, is regarded as the most structured white wine of the region – long-lived and mineral. The grapes are harvested by hand and fermented spontaneously. Ten months on full lees in stainless steel, ceramic and large wooden casks, unfined, unfiltered, no malolactic fermentation – all at a moderate 13.5% abv.

Food pairing

Its saline tension and herbal spice call for substance on the plate: risotto with herbs and lemon, vitello tonnato, sole in almond butter or tagliatelle with truffle. Also a delightful partner to hard mountain cheese or Asian dishes featuring ginger and lemongrass.

Special features

“Derthona” – the ancient name for Tortona – presents Timorasso in its purest, most structured form: a white wine with backbone rather than mere surface appeal, in which Vietti’s propensity for pushing boundaries and honouring forgotten varieties is vividly expressed in the glass. A wine that will gain further complexity with bottle age.