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Gamba di Pernice, or the officially used name Gamba Rossa, is a red Italian wine grape variety from the Piedmont region. Translated from Italian, its name means "partridge leg" and is a reference to the red colored stalks of the vines. The grapes is mainly used for making DOC Calosso, a small volume red varietal wine which was granted Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC) status in 2011. The current DOC recognized area of production for the wine covers only about 10 hectares of vines in the municipalities of Calosso, Costigliole d'Asti and Castagnole Lanze in the Asti Province[1]. Gamba di Pernice is therefore one of the lowest production varietal wines in Italy with its own DOC. Total production is around 30 000 bottles per year (2017) [3]. Although lightly colored, Gamba di Pernice wines have concentrated flavors with a spicy, herbal character and the ability to age well[2].
The Gamba di Pernice is one of varieties that survived the phylloxera at the end of the nineteenth century. It is reported to be related to the Neretto degli Alteni (or Verzuolo), a grape present in the Costigliole Saluzzo area[2]. It was considered of secondary importance compared to the main commercial grapes in the area, but was rediscovered at the beginning of the 2000s by wine growers near Calosso.[5]