ARPEPE
Rosso di Valtellina 2020 [1.5L]
Lombardia, Italy
As always a wine that over delivers in every way. From vines more than fifty years old planted over granite, fruit is sourced from the lower parts of their parcels across the various crus at around 350-400 metres above sea level. The grapes undergo a long, gentle maceration of two months in tini, before being pressed off to big old chestnut casks for a short rest. Fruit forward, pretty and perfumed, this is a perfect introduction to the kind of lithe, delicate Nebbiolo this family does so well.
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.