In America, when we talk local, we mean within 100 miles or so. New York City likes to claim both Long Island and the Finger Lakes as “local” wines.

Italy takes local to the other extreme. The local dialect alters slightly as you go from village to village, like a game of broken telephone, so that by the time you get 10 villages over it can get a little hard for people from the first village to understand. The way you make the local ragout or tortellini will also vary in two villages separated by just 3 or 4 miles.

And so it is with wines and the grapes that produce them. Sure, the DOC system has played a role in homogenizing wine production, so that now, for example, a collection of 11 villages in the Langhe are all incentivized to focus on production of the grape Nebbiolo in order to produce Barolo.

But even within these 11 villages you will find hold-outs. And the one that has become most famous is Pelaverga in the village of Verduno. This is a grape that was nearly extinct as recently as the 1960s. There were literally just a handful of vines kicking around, all in Verduno.

Why do its producers — and we are talking about top Barolo names in the village of Verduno, like the Castello di Verduno, Burlotto, and Alessandria – continue to devote time and precious vineyard space to Pelaverga? Well, it provides so much of the magic of Nebbiolo (its aromatics, its cherry fruit) without its weight or structure. Pelaverga is "lighter than air," according to Burlotto, and its bright red fruit is married to thyme and rosemary.

For reasons that are by now obvious, nobody makes a lot of Pelaverga and we rarely have much, if any, to offer. Our recent shipment comes from the Castello di Verduno, a property that was split from Burlotto in order to accommodate multiple heirs. Verduno calls this wine “Basadone”, not for the name of a vineyard (it comes from multiple vineyards within the village), but because it is local dialect for the poppy flower and colloquially means “little kiss”, reflecting the village lore that Pelaverga is an aphrodisiac. Could it be love that saved this grape from extinction?

Castello di Verduno, Pelaverga Basadone, 2022 $26.99