The red wines of Italy’s Valtellina region are some of the most buzzed-about, sought-after bottles on the planet. To understand why, all you need to do is dip your nose into a glass of today’s 2013 from Nobili—the aroma alone is enough to hook you for life, but there’s also the wine’s relative affordability given its rarity; its spectacular Alpine region of origin; and the internationally beloved “noble” grape variety it is made from, Nebbiolo.
Valtellina is one of those impossible-seeming wine places that reminds you, in no uncertain terms, that not all sub-$40 bottles of wine are created equal. Far from it! Working with just five hectares of organically farmed vines, Nicola Nobili and family make about 1,000 cases of wine from the “grand cru” vineyard called Inferno, so named because of the intense heat created by the sunlight that bakes its rocky soils. Inferno is arguably Valtellina’s most famous vineyard, with Nobili just one of the names attached to it, and while wines from here are some of the most powerful and structured in the region, we’re still in the shadow of the Swiss Alps here: Valtellina Nebbiolo is about hauntingly beautiful aromas and silken finesse. Tannins and alcohol are less pronounced here than in other Nebbiolo growing zones such as Barolo and Barbaresco. If you already know Valtellina wine, all it takes is one look at this label (and price) to know you’ve won the wine lottery today; if you’ve never tried a Valtellina red, I couldn’t recommend a better wine to hook you for life.
As I’ve said ad nauseum here on SommSelect, Nebbiolo from Valtellina is the most “Burgundian” expression of the variety there is. Physically, however, Valtellina has more in common with Cornas or Côte-Rôtie, in the northern Rhône Valley, than it does with Burgundy’s Côte d’Or. Centered on the city of Sondrio, in the northernmost reaches of Italy’s Lombardy region, Valtellina is a deeply carved Alpine valley traversed by the Adda River, which follows an almost perfect East-West path; vineyards are planted only on the north bank of the Adda, giving them full-south, all-day sun exposures in a climate that might otherwise be too cool to ripen grapes—especially the late-ripening Nebbiolo. The steep pitches of the hillsides require the vineyards to be terraced, and they’re held in place by a network of hand-laid stone terraces that were originally thought to be the work of ancient Ligurians, who had built similar terraces in the Cinque Terre near the Mediterranean. Look up from the Valtellina valley floor and you might think you’re in Côte-Rôtie, a “roasted slope” with which “Inferno” has lots in common. All vineyard work here, as is plain to see, must be done by hand.
With the snow-capped Swiss Alps looming overhead, the Valtellina is really something to behold—but this is ultimately a tiny wine region, spanning only about 300 hectares of vines along a 30-mile stretch of the Adda. In addition to Inferno, there are four other officially delimited vineyards under the Valtellina DOCG umbrella: Sassella, Valgella, Grumello, and Maroggia. All these sites have a multiplicity of owners farming and bottling wines from them, and for a wine to be called Valtellina Superiore with a vineyard designation, it must be comprised of at least 90% Nebbiolo (here called Chiavennasca) from said vineyard and be aged a minimum of 24 months (12 of which must be in wood barrels) before release.
Valtellina vineyards are rooted in a mix of sand, silt, and stone, much of it hauled up from the valley floor to construct the terraces. The stones and larger rocks help with heat retention, as does the altitude and aspect of the vineyards, but this is still “mountain” Nebbiolo, typically harvested in November and every inch a “cool climate” red: lithe, mineral, and fragrant as opposed to jammy and rich. Historically, most Valtellina wine was sold in Switzerland, but, as with some of the Alpine Nebbioli of Northern Piedmont (‘alto Piemonte’ appellations such as Gattinara), the wines have become go-to Barolo/Barbaresco alternatives—not least because they offer a gentler take on Nebbiolo. The typical Valtellina wine usually has less alcohol and considerably less tannin than Barolo/Barbaresco, yet still offers the complex, heady perfume people love in the variety.
Comprised of 100% Chiavennasca from Inferno, today’s 2013 was aged four years (!) in large oak casks and then four months in bottle before release. The benefits of that long pre-release period are readily evident on the complex nose, which is starting to show some of the “secondary” aromas that come with time: saddle leather, dried flowers, and warm spices. At the same time, there remains a beautiful core of bright, sappy red fruit that not all Valtellina reds manage (some can be a little too lean and leathery for some, but there’s no worry of that here). It’s a bright garnet-red in the glass, with hints of pink and orange at the rim, leading with ripe red currant/wild strawberry fruit and mixing in scents of blood orange peel, pekoe tea, rose petals, dried mushroom, and underbrush. It is medium-bodied, with fine-grained tannins and mouthwatering freshness—quite silky for Nebbiolo, with the slightest of bites on the finish. Decant it for 45 minutes and serve it at 60-65 degrees in Burgundy stems with a dish like the attached—which happens to come from a restaurant in Valtellina. That’s a regional pairing done right. Cheers!
