£15.50/£13.80, Haynes Hanson & Clark
When Piemonte Dolcetto is as good as Ca' Viola Vilot, it's an absolute treat, living up to its name 'little sweet', although it's most definitely a dry red wine. It's a grape variety that can have rather dry, sandpapery tannins (perhaps that's why it's been losing out to Barbera in the vineyards), but it doesn't need to, as the fine-grained silkiness of Beppe Caviola's Vilot demonstrates.
Apart from a fine texture and medium weight, it has an arresting perfume of violets, anchored by the freshness of wet-earth minerality and appetising just-ripe black cherry fruit with a suggestion of blueberries and cream. The cream doesn't reflect oak, incidentally: the wine was fermented with natural yeasts and then aged in stainless steel, hence the freshness and purity. 13.5%
I had it with cold roast goose and then a goose and porcini stew (including leek, sage, crème fraiche and mustard), which was quite a rich dish to put with it, but it didn't blanche. It would also be good with all sorts of cured, air-dried and lightly smoked meats and salamis or pasta with porcini. I'd also be tempted to try it with tuna. (In case you're wondering about my goose-eating habits in this heat – 37ºC today – I'm in self-isolation in southwest France for 14 days and drove down with a frozen goose in the back of the car.)
Cà Viola Dolcetto d'Alba Vilot 2019, Piedmont, Italy
£15.50, or £165.60 per case (£13.80 per bottle), Haynes Hanson & Clark
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