Ruché

Ruché is a rare, intensely aromatic red grape of the Monferrato hills in Piedmont, northwest Italy, and the sole variety behind the small DOCG of Ruché di Castagnole Monferrato. Pale-to-medium ruby in the glass, it is prized above all for its perfume — a heady lift of rose petal, violet, wild strawberry and warm spice that recalls an aromatic white as much as a red — carried on a light-to-medium body, moderate soft tannin and gentle acidity. Almost lost in the twentieth century and revived from a handful of old vines around one village, it is one of Italy's most distinctive and least-planted native reds: floral, savoury and unmistakable.