ARPEPE
Grumello Riserva Buon Consiglio 2016
Lombardia, Italy
At 350 metres above sea level, this dramatic fifty year old vineyard sits directly above the family’s cantina, which is artfully carved into the granite bedrock. After a long maceration with the skins, the grapes are pressed off to large chestnut casks for a long, gentle élevage that lasts four years. This is a beautiful example of mature mountain Nebbiolo, with sweet, delicate fruit, fine tannins and a wonderful herbaceous note.
Nebbiolo
ABOUT THE PRODUCER
The Perego family has been tending vines on these sheer granite terraces in the mountainous Valtellina since 1860. The vines are so far north into the alps they are practically in Switzerland.
They work only with Nebbiolo, or Chiavennasca as it is called in these parts, growing the grapes up to 700 metres above sea level on sheer, south-facing, sunlit vines that dig straight into rock. The resulting fruit is intensely mineral.
Production is very much of the old-school and labour is intense, the hills making it very difficult to reach the fruit at all. Everything in the vineyard is done by hand and in the cantina the family exercises a soft touch with great patience, leaving the wines to rest until they are deemed ready for release.
The transparency of the grape, the singular landscape and the Peregos’ gentle hand in the cantina lend these wines a remarkable sense of place.