Loazzolo is a small village with some zoo inhabitants, al 600 meters above sea level, is located on the border between the Langa Astigiana,to which it belongs, and the Langa Albese. Thanks to this extraordinary geographic location, it benefits from a unique md special microclimate. The calcareous marly soil is essential to obtain the typicality of the wines produced in this area.
The exposure of vineyards is called "suri" (sunny), i.e. from south east to south west. Slope is significant. Vineyards are never weeded and no type of fertilizer is used. Between woods and vineyards, on steep hills, Loazzolo offers remarkable views between the old houses made of squaredsandstone blocks that still preserve the charm of the 19th century.
But Loazzolo is renowned for the little d.o.c. (appellation) that gave the name to a very particular wine, i.e. the passito di Moscato vendemmia tardiva (late vintage Moscato raisin wine), made and bottled (sole case in Italy) in one village on an area smaller than five hectares with eight passionate producers. The sweet nectar characterizing these hills dates back to an ancient tradition.
This soft, smooth beverage, fruit of a late vintage, has a very ancient history that already thrilled the poets in ancient times. Homer exalted the sweet wine of Maronis, King of Thrace. As long ago as the 17th century, in Italy the raisin wine was produced for the nobles to flatter the palate of the powerful.
It was drunk respectfully and parsimoniously, without mixing it wig water, in little glasses to symbolize its rareness. It was the pure wine, themecum of the Romans, the cult wine opposed to the nourishment wine. In the last century, in the late 30s, a sweet Moscato wine was produced in Loazzolo; it was in 1936, before the terrible tempest that destroyed thePiasa Raschei vineyard, planted again in 1938.
1908 - Arnaldo Strucchi - THE BEST WINES OF ITALY
... moscato grapes are also used to prepare, in small quantity, a sugary wine, called moscato appassito or passito, belonging to the category of the so called santi or appassiti wines, sweet, delicate, perked for ladies...
... it will become good in three years, very good in six years, excellent in ten years...
In the late80s, Giancarlo Scaglione rediscovered the production of this wine; with Giacomo Bologna, inspirer of the adventurous madness; Luigi Veronelli, who used to walk through and write about the high and steep vineyard, Vittorio Gancia, involved in sup-porting the approval of the regulation, and Carlin Petrini, who sup-ported it as important symbol of the Italian oenology.
These are the origins of Loazzolo wine that in 1992 obtained, thanks to everyones support and the commitment of Mayor Giovanni Satragno, the Loazzolo d.o.c. (appellation), thus identifying with a small village in the Langa Astigiana.
“The vineyards of Loazzolo are so difficult and steep that here
I heard the earth talking, through the vineyards, to the sky:
by drinking the wine of these vineyards we can get closer to the gods”
Luigi Veronelli