2019 Poderi Luigi Einaudi Dolcetto di Dogliani Piedmont Italy 750 ml

Northwest Italy is known the world over for collectible wines that thrive on decades of age. But if you were to sit at a Piedmontese trattoria and share a day’s-end glass of wine with a Barolo or Barbaresco winemaker, chances are you’d unwind with a big pour—and inevitably a second one—of deep ruby-red Dolcetto. 

Unlike brooding Barolo and Barbaresco, Dolcetto absolutely shines in its youth. It’s the kind of wine that is consumed by the cask by Piedmontese locals, as their slow-evolving Nebbiolos evolve in the cellar. That means there’s no better bottle to have on hand than a bright, lip-smacking Dolcetto… and nobody makes a more gorgeous example than Poderi Luigi Einaudi. 

With their acres of rolling vineyards in Dogliani—the village that stands above all the rest for Dolcetto production—Einaudi crafts complex and concentrated must-try bottles from their 90-year-old vines. These are wines that put gorgeous red fruit front and center, and will thrill not only fans of Italian reds, but those who love Zinfandel, Barbera, and Gamay.

A sip of Poderi Luigi Einaudi’s Dolcetto can achieve the unthinkable: It can make you forget all the other wines of Piedmont. Showing a deep ruby color, with plum, dark cherry, and cassis dominating the nose, it’s a bright and early-drinking red with secondary notes of balsamic, nutmeg and allspice. With its incredible balance of fruit and acid and warm, inviting tannin structure, this is pure Piedmontese pleasure in a bottle. 

Even if your cellar is deep on Barolo and Barbaresco, you don’t truly know Piedmont until you’ve paired an excellent Dolcetto with a stew, steak, or pizza, or simply delighted in a glass on its own.

Sauvignon Blanc has Sancerre, Sangiovese has Tuscany: Every grape has its spiritual home, and for Dolcetto, that place is Dogliani. The village, located a few miles south of Barolo, produces Dolcetto with the kind of complexity, brightness, and intensity that belie its simple name, which means “little sweet one.” The results are some of the juiciest, most food-friendly wines on the planet.

Our appreciation for Dolcetto doubled when we visited Poderi Luigi Einaudi, and gazed upon the steep vineyards that put forth these incredible wines. The estate was founded in 1915 by Luigi Einaudi, a true pioneer: As he acquired land for his vineyards, he paid close attention to the position, the exposure, and the soil type. Eventually he pieced together one of the most formidable estates in the area. He brought modern viticulture to the Langhe when he used American rootstock in order to stop phylloxera. And over the years, even as he became a prominent citizen (he eventually served as President of Italy), he is reputed never to have missed a harvest in Dogliani.

Einaudi lives on, now run by fourth-generation proprietor Matteo Sardagna, and their Dolcettos are textbook examples of what makes the Dogliani DOCG shine. Fans of juicy reds, your cellar is incomplete without it.