Timorasso Is Where It All Starts
And other tales of obscure Piedmont whites, including erbaluce, nascetta, and cat balls.
On occasion, I’ll admit to bias. For instance, there is no way I would not buy the bottle pictured above. Iuli Barat is made from a nearly-extinct Piemontese grape called baratuciat, which means “cat balls” in the local dialect (apparently because the grape is small and oval-shaped). Even in Piedmont, where plenty of obscure grapes thrive, bar…