Why it matters
The producer
For five generations, the Altare family grew Dolcetto in Dogliani and sold the grapes. When Nicholas was sixteen, he made his father a proposal: hand over the vineyard management, and convert the estate to organic farming. His father agreed on both counts. The family had never made their own wine.
Nicholas had no winery. In 2015, he began his first vinification inside the cellar of Fernando Principiano, one of Piemonte's most respected natural winemakers, where he worked for the following decade. Ten vintages in, the estate produces one wine from one appellation: Dogliani DOCG, from 2.5 hectares of old-vine Dolcetto in the San Luigi locality.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Dogliani sits in the Langhe hills of southern Piemonte, below Barolo and Alba. The appellation is devoted entirely to Dolcetto, and was elevated from DOC to DOCG in 2011. That elevation matters in the glass: Dogliani Dolcetto runs darker, weightier, and more tannic than the Dolcetto d'Alba produced further north, where the grape plays a lighter, earlier-drinking role.
San Luigi, the locality where Altare's vines grow, lies in the commune of Dogliani. The old vines produce lower yields and more concentrated fruit than younger plantings would.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
The 2.5-hectare estate is farmed organically and to vegan standards. Grapes are hand-harvested. In the cellar, fermentation runs 21 days with skin contact in concrete tanks. That extended maceration draws more colour, tannin, and mid-palate weight from the Dolcetto than a brief four or five-day extraction would. Concrete holds temperature more evenly than stainless steel and does not add oxygen or wood character, so the fruit stays direct and the tannins integrate cleanly.
After fermentation, the wine ages in concrete for nine to ten months before bottling. The 2021 vintage used a split of stainless steel and concrete for fermentation; other vintages use full concrete. No oak is involved at any stage.
Wines to know
The range in view
One wine. The Dogliani DOCG is the entire range: organic Dolcetto, hand-harvested from old vines in San Luigi, fermented with skin contact, aged in concrete. There is no entry-level bottling, no reserve, no second label. The single wine carries all the choices made in vineyard and cellar.
Across vintages, the wine shows a dark fruit core: cherry, raspberry, and strawberry alongside herbal and spice notes, white pepper particularly. The 2021 showed a beautiful open nose and a long presence on the palate. The 2024 added basil and blood orange to the dark cherry and pepper register. Tannins are present and grip the mid-palate, softening through the concrete ageing period without disappearing. The wine is not built for immediate, easy drinking in the way a short-maceration Dolcetto d'Alba often is.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
The Dogliani DOCG is the only bottle Altare makes, so the choice is made. Pick a current vintage. What arrives is a dry red from Dolcetto with three weeks of skin contact and ten months in concrete: dark cherry and white pepper on the nose, firm tannins in the mouth, and a long finish. The concrete ageing builds cohesion without adding flavour, so what you taste is the grape, the old vines, and the extended maceration.