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(last edited 2/8/2023 8:38:18 AM by charlie11)
 

Valtellina is an alpine valley in the far north of Lombardy, bordering Switzerland, from the village of Berbenno to Tirano. It's been producing wine for over 2000 years. Today it is known for its bright, cherry-scented wines made from the Nebbiolo grape variety, known here as Chiavennasca (after the nearby town of Chiavenna). These come in two forms: the standard Rosso di Valtellina and its powerful, dried-grape Sfursat (Sforzato) form. With a few years of bottle age, gamey, leather-like notes will develop, and the crimson will turn to garnet with a brick-orange rim – the visual trademark of Nebbiolo-based wines. Situated in the Rhaetian Alps, about 60 miles NE of Milan, some of the steepest slopes in Europe with the most striking landscapes of the Alps. Requires mostly hand-harvesting. The soils here are typically alluvial: gravelly, well drained and rich in silica. They are littered with larger stones, which gather heat throughout the day and release it in the evening. Many producers here also make wines using the Alpi Retiche IGT designation.

The thin skin of the Nebbiolo grape, unlike the varieties used to make Amarone, and the practice of minimizing the amount of tannin extracted during vinification, unlike the traditional style of vinifying Barolo, creates a Nebbiolo wine unlike any other. The bright, cherry flavors and rose and violet aromas that are unmistakably Nebbiolo are still there, but the tannic backbone is much lighter, less obtrusive. This is alpine Nebbiolo. It has more in common with the Nebbiolo (locally called Spanna) grown in the Val D’Aosta or the Nebbiolo from Gattinara or Ghemme in the alpine hills of Alto Piemonte, than it does with Barolo or Barbaresco.

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