Grape Guide
Timorasso
WhiteTimorasso is a white grape native to the hills around Tortona in south-eastern Piedmont, once widely grown in Alessandria province and brought close to extinction by the 1980s. Revived since the mid 1980s, it now gives full-bodied, high-acid dry whites with honeyed, citrus and stone-fruit character that age remarkably well and are often likened to mature Riesling.
Key characteristics
- Native to the Colli Tortonesi hills of Alessandria province, Piedmont
- Possible parent-offspring relationship with Lambruschetto, suggested by DNA profiling
- Vigorous vine with modest yields and small, sugar-rich berries
- Ripens early to mid season; prone to botrytis and millerandage
- Plantings rose from a few hectares in 2000 to roughly 400 ha by the mid 2020s
Typical flavors
Major regions
Colli Tortonesi DOC (Piedmont) · Derthona designations (Colli Tortonesi) · Monferrato DOC · Alessandria province · Asti province (limited plantings)
Also known as
Morasso · Timoraccio · Timuassa · Derthona (Tortona; also a trademarked wine name)
Timorasso is among the few Italian white varieties that unites body, acidity and real cellaring potential. Varietal wines are weighty and textured, with a core of lemon, ripe pear and light honey, often framed by white flowers and a nutty, almost lightly oaked impression that arises from the grape rather than from barrels. Mouthfeel is creamy, yet the acid line stays firm, which gives the wines length and keeps them from feeling heavy.
Its reputation rests on development in bottle. After several years, the fruit deepens toward beeswax, dried apricot and toasted nuts, and a faint petrol note can emerge, a likeness to aged Riesling that tasters raise repeatedly. A grape that nearly vanished is now treated as Piedmont's most serious white outside Gavi, and the name Derthona, the Roman name for Tortona, is now widely used on labels, while a formal Derthona sub-zone within the Colli Tortonesi DOC is still awaiting national approval.
Timorasso is a historic variety of the Colli Tortonesi, the hills that surround Tortona in Alessandria province. A vineyard called vineam de gragnolato appears in a 1209 Latin record from Tortona, and some researchers have tentatively tied it to Timorasso, though the identification is not firm. Later agricultural writing records the variety in the area, and until the late nineteenth century it was prized both for wine and as a table grape.
DNA profiling points to a parent-offspring relationship with Lambruschetto, a local variety of Castelnuovo Bormida, also in Alessandria province, which places Timorasso firmly in this corner of Piedmont. The second parent is not identified. An earlier suggestion of a link to Nebbiolo has not been supported by genetic work.
Phylloxera and the replanting that followed shifted growers toward Cortese, which crops more heavily and is easier to manage. Timorasso declined through the twentieth century until only a few vines survived by the 1980s. Walter Massa of Vigneti Massa, at Monleale, began propagating and bottling it in the mid to late 1980s, and a growing number of neighbours followed. Plantings were only about 3 to 4 ha around 2000, reached roughly 128 ha in 2018 and have since climbed to about 500 ha, with the Consortium reporting over a hundred member producers.
Timorasso is a vigorous vine whose crop is nevertheless modest, with yields noticeably below those of Cortese and berries that are small and accumulate sugar readily. It ripens early to mid season, and growers generally aim to harvest with fully mature fruit to secure the weight and flavour the best wines show. Bunches are vulnerable to botrytis bunch rot, and poor flowering weather can bring millerandage, producing uneven berry set and further cutting the crop. The vine does best on the calcareous clay and marly slopes of the Tortona hills, where moderate vigour and good air movement reduce rot pressure. Low productivity, hand work on steep sites and strong demand together explain why vineyard land in the zone has become far more expensive within a decade.
Dry varietal white is the established style. Young wines are aromatic, showing citrus peel, acacia, light honey and a mineral, saline edge, with a creamy texture and high, firm acidity. Many producers age on the lees in stainless steel, concrete or large neutral wood, and some use a measure of new oak; the wines can nonetheless taste faintly oaked without it. With bottle age they gain beeswax, dried fruit, hazelnut and a petrol-like note, and well-made examples keep improving for a decade or more. Under the current Colli Tortonesi DOC the wines are labelled Colli Tortonesi Timorasso. A proposed Derthona sub-zone with three tiers, Piccolo Derthona (fresher, released earlier), Derthona and Derthona Riserva (released after longer ageing), all from Timorasso alone, is awaiting national approval. Sweet or sparkling versions are marginal, and the grape remains almost wholly a dry still-wine variety.
Where it grows
Colli Tortonesi (Alessandria)
The heartland, with vineyards on hillsides around Tortona and in places such as Monleale, Costa Vescovato and Vho. The Colli Tortonesi DOC allows Timorasso as a varietal wine and holds the large majority of the world's plantings.
Derthona designations
Derthona is the Roman name for Tortona. It was trademarked by the local consortium, and a proposed Derthona sub-zone, written as an annex to the DOC specification, would cover Piccolo Derthona, Derthona and Derthona Riserva, all 100% Timorasso, and is still awaiting national approval.
Monferrato DOC
Timorasso may also be used here for varietal white wines, and it can be blended with other local grapes such as Cortese, though the best expressions are generally sold as unblended wines.
Producers
Vigneti Massa is the revival estate and a reference point for the style. Luigi Boveri, La Colombera and Vigne Marina Coppi are among other long-standing growers, and several well-known Piedmont houses from outside the zone have since planted or bought Timorasso vineyards.
Elsewhere in Piedmont and Italy
The variety is authorised in Asti and Alessandria provinces, but plantings outside the Tortona hills are small. Italy's 2000 agricultural census recorded only about 20 ha, and expansion since has been concentrated near its original home.