Val Tidone

Styles

Principal grape varieties

Terroir

• The soils of Val Tidone have a high clay content, a fine texture, and greater potassium richness compared to the soils of Val d'Arda and the other central valleys of the province.
• The climate of the production area is temperate subcontinental, with a mean annual temperature of between 10 and 14.5°C and one to three summer months with a mean temperature above 20°C.
• Annual rainfall ranges from a minimum of 700–800 mm in the foothill zone to approximately 1,000–1,100 mm at the upper limit of 500–600 metres of altitude, following a sub-littoral Apennine rainfall pattern.
• In the altitudinal band between 200 and 500 metres, the Winkler bioclimatic index ranges between 1,500 and 1,800°C, with the highest values on south-facing slopes and at lower elevations, while the Huglin index falls between 1,800° and 2,000°C.
• In the hill zone, especially on more southerly aspects and at some distance from the valley floors, the mean temperature of the coldest months is 1–2°C higher than on the plain, while that of the summer months is 1–2°C lower than on the plain.

• The winegrowers of the Piacenza area traditionally trained vines low using carasse — stakes corresponding to the vinae characatae described by Columella — according to the principle that it is the stake that makes the grape.
• In 1914 the Ministry of Agriculture included in the first list of typical and distinguished wines a fragrant, fruity red produced in the Piacenza area, considered the progenitor of the red wines of Piacenza: Gutturnio.

• The good nutrition of the vines, owing to soil fertility, translates into the production of balanced, pleasant, and approachable wines.

Facts drawn from the specification's terroir-link section by automatic interpretation — see the source.

All appellations in Italy

Sources

• eAmbrosia register (EU) — File number PGI-IT-A0532
• Official trade body site — Consorzio Tutela Vini DOC Colli Piacentini