Truffle foragers in ferment at spread of vines
Rising temperatures force Italian wine makers to consider growing grapes in fungi hunting grounds
TRUFFLE hunters in one of Italy’s most famous wine producing regions have gone to war with vintners who they accuse of encroaching on their territory.
To combat rising year-round temperatures and scorching summers, winemakers in the Piedmont region are proposing the planting of new vineyards on the north-facing slopes of hills, which until now have been considered too cool, damp and shady for grape cultivation.
Extending vineyards to the northern slopes is being touted by a consortium of winemakers as a feasible way of addressing the challenges of global warming.
But that puts them at loggerheads with truffle hunters who say that, for centuries north-facing slopes have been left to woodland and meadows, which provide the perfect habitat for truffles to grow.
The battle of the gourmands is unfolding in the Langhe area of Piedmont, which is renowned for its Barbaresco and Barolo reds – the latter known as “the wine of kings and the king of wines”. Both are made from the Nebbiolo variety of grape.
The Langhe area – the name is a derivation of an ancient Celtic word meaning tongue, a reference to the tongue-shaped hills that rise above the valleys – is famed for its expensive white truffles.
Truffle hunters say that if northern hillsides become covered in vines, there will be nowhere for them and their truffle hounds to search of the prized tuber.
“Opening up north-facing slopes to the production of grapes would pose a grave threat to truffles,” said Antonio Degiacomi, the president of the National Centre for Truffle Studies, which is based in the town of Alba, a picturesque town in the Langhe area.
“All the biodiversity of the region is concentrated on the northern slopes and without it, there will be no truffles.” Covering the previously wooded northern slopes with vineyards would be a “lethal blow” to truffle hunters, he told La Stampa newspaper. “If it is allowed to go ahead, the famous white truffle of Alba will no longer exist.”
The idea of expanding vineyards to cooler, danker northern slopes has been proposed by the Consortium for the Protection of Barolo and Barbaresco, an association of winemakers, which says it would be a way of addressing “the climatic conditions we are experiencing and the effects they are having.”
Matteo Ascheri, a vintner who is in favour of the change, said: “Faced with climate change, we have to adapt. The conditions in which we work have changed. If a location that is less sunny is better than one which is exposed to the sun, let’s consider it.”
The suggestion is likely to catch the eye of other Italian winemaking regions that are wrestling with the problems caused by rising temperatures.
But not all winemakers are in favour of extending vineyards to north-facing slopes. Some argue that it will lead to overproduction that could undermine the value of the prestige reds.
They say the region is already subject to a high degree of monoculture because of the large number of vineyards.
They caution that there is no scientific proof that Nebbiolo grapes can be successfully grown on north-facing hillsides and that vines in damper conditions may be more vulnerable to disease.
Expanding the area under vine cultivation “could change the economy of the entire territory, to say nothing of the risk of exhausting a region which is already under pressure from monoculture,” said Marta Rinaldi, a Barolo producer.
‘No scientific proof that the Nebbiolo grape can be successfully grown on north-facing hillsides’