Dolcetto is a typical Piedmontese and Langhe grape.
Apparently, the name comes from Dosset, which can be translated from dialect as “sweetish”: it could be used with reference to the smoothness of the wine, which has been acknowledged for generations, in a language that, lacking a specific term, has adapted the next best thing, semantically-speaking, which indicates sweetness. Of course Dolcetto is not a sweet wine but it has a softness (and this is vaguely the meaning of the name) reminiscent of the pleasantness found in sweet wines. An everyday wine to be enjoyed with all courses of a meal, it was grandfather Carlo’s favourite lunchtime wine.
