Timorasso is a white wine grape native to Italy where it is grown in Piedmont and Lombardy. It was once the most commonly grown white grape (along with Cortese) in Piemonte (Piedmont) but it was abandoned due to viticultural challenges. Walter Massa is credited with resurrecting Timorasso starting in the 1980s, and today (2018) there are over thirty producers. It is seen as one of Italy’s exciting up and coming whites, mostly dry and still.
Wine style: Timorasso shows intense and persistent herbal and minerally notes and piercing acidity. It is medium to full in body with a tendency toward higher alcohol. Youthful examples demonstrate white flowers, subtle stone fruit and lemon nuances. Timorasso can produce age-worthy wines that take on diesel notes with time and may be reminiscent of a dry German Riesling.
Where grown in Italy: Piemonte: Piemonte (Piedmont): Colli Tortonesi DOC. | Lombardia (Lombardy): A few plantings.
Viticulture: Timorasso ripens late. Bunches yield berries of different sizes that ripen unevenly. Additional problems include coulure. Thin skin renders it susceptible to grey rot.
Bibliography
See Ian D’Agata, Native Wine Grapes of Italy (University of California Press, 2014).
Italian Wine Unplugged (Positive Press, 2017), p.136