“Inclusion of Nebbiolo in the Piemonte DOC has been definitively shelved” said Barolo-Barbaresco-Alba consortium president Orlando Pecchenino in a statement published late yesterday by Corriere della Sera wine writer Luciano Ferraro.

This latest volley in the “Nebbiolo war,” as Ferraro has called it, arrives in the wake of a meeting yesterday where Filippo Mobrici, president of the Asti-Monferrato consortium, and Pecchenino presented their respective positions — for and against the creation of a Piemonte Nebbiolo DOC — to the Piedmont Regional Viticultural Commission and its superintendent Giorgio Ferrero.

After the Asti-Monferrato consortium circulated a proposal for a new Piemonte Nebbiolo DOC in August, representatives of the Barolo-Barbaresco-Alba consortium have lobbied aggressively against the move.

While Asti-Monferrato growers would like to have the right to use the grape name Nebbiolo in labeling of wines made from Nebbiolo in their appellations, Barolo-Barbaresco-Alba consortium members counter that the creation of a Piemonte Nebbiolo DOC would lead to the planting of Nebbiolo in appellations not suited for its production; diminished quality of Piedmont’s production of Nebbiolo in general; and confusion among consumers.

“The Langhe have won the Nebbiolo war,” Ferraro wrote yesterday referring to the Barolo-Barbaresco-Alba consortium in his post for the Corriere. But it’s not clear whether or not efforts to move forward with the Asti-Monferrato proposal have been “definitively” blocked.

In a statement included in Ferraro’s coverage, Mobrici told the Corriere writer: “we are pleased that the conversation took place in peaceful and constructive tones. Based on these discussions, we plan to present a new proposal that can be received with wide-reaching consensus by the commission and by producers.”

See this op-ed by my friend and client Giovanni Minetti, former president of the Barolo-Barbaresco-Alba consortium, who argues against the creation of a Piemonte Nebbiolo DOC. “Before asking for permission to create such an important new category like a DOC,” he writes, “why not begin by experimenting and planting a few vineyards in places outside the traditional areas for production?”