You may be more familiar with the muscular Nebbiolo of Barolo or Barbaresco - see what happens to Nebbiolo here in Valtellina. Pale, pure, elegant and nuanced, evocative of a fine French Burgundy, yet something totally unique that can only be the product of this specific location. An absolute house favourite.
We’re interested in wine with that all important ‘sense of place’ - if you want to really understand that term then this is a good wine to help you do so, it’s how we learned too! Valtellina is in a valley in the extreme north of Italy: Lombardy. The sides of the valley slope steeply upwards and eventually turn into the snow-capped mountains of the Swiss Alps, to give you an idea of altitude and climate. For grapes to grow well here the vineyards need to take advantage of these steep South-facing slopes so that the grapes can be bathed in as much light as possible for the entire duration of the day, otherwise they simply wont ripen. The grapes undergo a long, gentle maceration in tini, before being pressed off to big old chestnut casks for a year’s rest. Fruit forward, pretty and perfumed, this is a perfect introduction to the Mountain Nebbiolo this family does so well.
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 a gentle hand in the cantina lend these wines a remarkable sense of place.
