Nascetta: Novello's Rescued White and the Langhe Wines It Makes
How a sweet Mass wine from one Barolo village came back from a few scattered rows to more than sixty hectares.
Il Vino Bello ·
For most of the twentieth century, the white grapes of the Langhe lost ground to Nebbiolo. One of them came very close to disappearing. By the end of the 1980s, Nascetta survived only in a few scattered rows around Novello, the village on the southern edge of the Barolo zone. Today it covers more than sixty hectares in the Langhe, and this June it had a festival of its own.
A Mass wine that nearly vanished
Nascetta is not a newcomer. Giovanni Battista Cerletti mentioned the "Nascette" of Novello in 1874, and Count Giuseppe di Rovasenda wrote about it in 1877; the Elvio Cogno estate quotes him calling it "a very delicate grape and exquisite wine". According to the same estate, Nascetta was used as a wine for Mass: a sweet wine made from slightly dried grapes, able to withstand time.
Its decline was a practical matter. Cogno's history describes the vine as "delicate and unstable", difficult to cultivate and unpredictable in yield, and says that more productive varieties, and above all Nebbiolo for Barolo, were favoured over it. By the late 1980s, only a few rows were left in Novello's vineyards.
The 1993 tasting and 800 bottles
The turning point, as the Cogno estate tells it, came in 1993. Elvio Cogno, Valter Fissore and other Novello producers opened bottles of 1986 Nascetta in the presence of the journalist Armando Gambera. The wine had evolved towards passito notes and had resisted oxidation, and the estate's account says it "almost resembled a Sauternes".
The following year, Elvio Cogno made the first modern single-variety Nascetta: about 800 bottles, from grapes picked in the few old rows that had survived in the commune. Wine Alchemy credits Cogno and Le Strette with preserving the oldest vines, planted in 1948.
From one village to a Langhe DOC
The paperwork took longer than the wine. The Comune di Novello started the process for recognising the variety in 1991, and Nascetta was entered in the national register of grape varieties in 2001. In 2002 it became part of the Langhe DOC, which encouraged new plantings, and in 2010 the historic subzone "Langhe DOC Nas-cëtta del Comune di Novello" was recognised.
The two tiers differ in one important way. A Nascetta del Comune di Novello must be 100 per cent Nascetta from vineyards registered in the commune. Langhe Nascetta from anywhere else in the DOC may include up to 15 per cent of other white varieties.
The vineyard area has grown quickly. Wine Alchemy put it at 40 hectares by 2019, and a June 2026 piece on Wine Blog Roll gives more than sixty hectares across the Langhe. On 13 June 2026 the Associazione Produttori di Nas-cëtta del Comune di Novello held the first Nas-cëttaland at the Castello di Novello, with 34 wineries pouring.
What the grape is like
Nascetta is usually described as semi-aromatic. LoveLanghe lists wildflowers, aromatic herbs, citrus and exotic fruit, with tropical fruit and honey. Wine Alchemy compares it with Riesling, Vermentino and Sauvignon, points to herbal notes and a saline bite in young wines, and says it can age for a decade or more, gradually developing honey and vanilla complexity. That capacity to evolve is the thread running back to the 1986 bottles opened in 1993.
Nascetta on Il Vino Bello
Nascetta has travelled well beyond Novello, and the producers' own technical notes show how differently it is made.
- Ettore Germano in Serralunga d'Alba gives its Langhe Nascetta about ten days on the skins in steel, then 8 to 10 months in terracotta amphorae. The estate describes sage, thyme, lemon blossom and iodine.
- Casa E. di Mirafiore, also in Serralunga, presses the grapes for its Langhe Nascetta without destemming and ferments slowly and cool for at least three weeks.
- Ca' Brusà in Monforte d'Alba ages its Langhe Nascetta on the lees in steel for 5 to 6 months, without malolactic fermentation.
- Cantina Clavesana ferments its Nascetta in small steel tanks at 16 to 17°C and leaves it on the lees for 4 to 5 months.
- Across the Tanaro in Vezza d'Alba, Cantina del Nebbiolo gives its Langhe Nascetta partial refinement in acacia wood.
- Orlando Abrigo in Treiso bottles a varietal Indigeno and uses Nascetta for 20 per cent of Trés Plus, where it rests on its lees in steel while the Chardonnay goes into barrique.
- Fontanafredda pairs it with Riesling in Marin, and in Nizza Monferrato Cantina Sant'Evasio blends it with Arneis and Chardonnay in Lagaia.
To taste where it all started, look for the words "del Comune di Novello" on the label: that is the 100 per cent version from the grape's home village.
Sources
- https://www.cognowines.com/en/the-story-of-nascetta/
- https://wineblogroll.com/2026/06/nas-cetta-o-nascetta-di-novello-vini-produttori-associazione-evento-nascettaland/
- https://www.winealchemy.co.uk/nascetta-part-1-welcome-to-novello/
- https://langhe.net/vino/langhe-doc-nascetta/
- https://www.tastinglife.it/2026/06/05/a-novello-nasce-nas-cettaland-il-festival-dedicato-alla-nas-cetta-13-giugno-2026/