Lombardy, Italy

Arpepe

Sassella Riserva Ultimi Raggi 2016

£73

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ARPEPE
Sassella Riserva Ultimi Raggi 2016
Lombardy, Italy

From a parcel in the very highest part of Sassella, around six hundred metres above sea level, this is what the great sforzato wines once were and perhaps what they ought to be. The Peregos believe that a true expression of grape, place and vintage is lost when one dries grapes away from the vineyard. Instead they harvest their fruit late, allowing the grapes to dry on the plant. The wine spends thirty days on skins in tini and four years in huge old chestnut casks and is impossibly deep – full of warm, sweet fruit, it screams for a good hunk of cheese from the surrounding hills.

Nebbiolo


ABOUT THE PRODUCER

The Perego family has been growing grapes on the granite terraces of Valtellina since 1860.

They work only with Nebbiolo, or Chiavennasca as it is called in these parts, growing the grapes up to seven hundred metres above sea level on sheer, south-facing, sunlit vines that dig straight into rock. The vines are so far north into the alps they are practically in Switzerland and 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 across their thirteen hectares of vines is done by hand and in the cantina the family exercises a soft touch with famous patience. Favouring long, gentle macerations, the wines are left to rest in large, old chestnut casks until they are deemed ready for release.

The transparency of the grape, the singular landscape and the Peregos’ gentle hand in the cantina make for wines that are up there with Italy’s greats.