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There are some Italian wine
regions you really have to see to believe. The Cinque Terre,
whose terraced vines spill down toward the Ligurian sea, is
surely one of them.
So is the Salento peninsula in Puglia, where giant bush vines,
called alberelli (little trees), stretch on for miles
in copper-red soils. And then there’s the Valtellina,
hugging the Swiss border in northern Lombardia, where, again,
vintners eke out a crop on steep, man-made terraces in the
shadow of the Alps. Napa Valley this ain’t.
Physically as well as culturally, the Valtellina, like many
parts of Alpine Italy, feels somewhat distinct from the rest
of the peninsula. And yet its wines are a bridge to
better-known regions, namely Barolo and Barbaresco in Piemonte,
because Valtellina reds are
made from nebbiolo (here called chiavennasca). How the great
grape of Piemonte got all the way up
here is something of a mystery, although it is known that
the spectacular terraces of the
Valtellina were built by ancient Ligurians, using rocks and
other material dragged up from the
riverbed below.
Drinking
a Valtellina red is like drinking a more nervous, higher-altitude
version of
Barolo. The rosy aromatics and dried-fruit flavors of nebbiolo
are all there, albeit in a tighter,
lighter package, though this is not to say that the Valtellina
versions lack for power. It seems
impossible that the fickle nebbiolo would ripen at all in
such a northerly latitude, but of
course looks are always deceiving ¯ there’s enough
sun power in the Valtellina to support
tropical plants such as agave, which actually pop up here
and there in the rocky Valtellina soils.
The nomenclature of Valtellina is akin to that of Burgundy,
in that most of the Valtellina
wine you see will be labeled with a vineyard designation.
Around the city of Sondrio, there are
four “classified” vineyards that are sort of the
“Grand Crus” of the Valtellina: Inferno, Grumello,
Sassella, and Valgella. Many different producers bottle wines
from these vineyards, and the wines
are distinguished by the “Valtellina Superiore”
designation. When you drink a “Valtellina
Superiore Inferno,” for example, you are drinking a
single-vineyard bottling from the Inferno
cru. We always have several of these vineyard-designated Valtellina
wines on our list, and
they are fantastic, great-value alternatives to Piemontese
nebbiolo ¯ they are packed with
intense aromas of dried cherries, earl grey tea, wood smoke…think
“Baby Barolo” and you get
the picture.
Then
there are the Valtellina reds labeled “Sfursat,”
or “Sforsato,” in which the
nebbiolo grapes used to make the wine are dried before pressing
to concentrate their
flavors. This process, exactly like the one used to make Amarone
in the Veneto,
creates a wine that is richer, softer, and ever-so-slightly
sweet ¯ an alternative to
the sharp angles of a basic Valtellina Superiore. “Sfursat”
means “strengthened” in
local dialect, and these wines have some of the heft of Amarone
while retaining the
ethereal aromatics of nebbiolo. They are truly special wines,
but they require an
open mind.
Try one
of these Valtellina wines on your next visit, and see another
very fascinating side
of the most noble red grape in Italy:
Valtellina Sfursat “Canua,” Conti Sertoli
Salis 2000
Here’s a great example of the dried-grape “sfursat”
style,
sort of a cross between a Barolo and an Amarone. Soft and
supple, with bright cherry aromas and a
whiff of pipe tobacco and earth on the nose, this is a wine
that keeps growing in stature in
the glass. As unique a wine as you’ll ever taste, period
Valtellina Superiore Inferno, Rainoldi 1998
Lean and fragrant, with lots of pinot noir-ish aromas. A terrific
value at $28.
Lots of leather and spice in a lightweight package.
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