SommSelect has been flush with Italian treasures lately, but today’s offer is still one to shout from the rooftops: An expert Italian wine collector offered us some back-vintage magnums (1.5L bottles) from the legendary AR.PE.PE. estate in Italy’s Valtellina region, and yes, we pounced. I can think of few Italian producers that have captured the public imagination like AR.PE.PE., whose ethereal Alpine reds from the Nebbiolo grape regularly draw comparisons to the best reds of Burgundy.
Valtellina Nebbiolo is a more finessed, perfumed expression of the variety in comparison to Piedmontese versions from Barolo/Barbaresco, and AR.PE.PE. is widely recognized as the reference-point producer in this remote region. The mind-blowing, mouth-watering assortment of magnums we had to choose from included a batch of today’s scintillating 2010 from the “Inferno” vineyard, Valtellina’s most famous “cru”—and at just $150 a piece, these perfectly stored, well-aged trophies are an absolute steal. The magnum format has done wonders for this pretty, still-youthful wine, which is just getting started—and to be able to uncork others over the course of the next decade-plus is something I’m eagerly looking forward to. This is some of the best Italian wine money can buy (and it’s not even that much money), so take up to three bottles for yourself and join me in celebrating this amazing find!
[**PLEASE NOTE: The “Build-a-Case” option is not available for Magnum purchases.]
AR.PE.PE. is a “cult” winery in the best sense of that word: It’s a magical place, managed by a delightful family, producing some of the most beguiling expressions of Nebbiolo you’ll ever taste. Up in northern Lombardy, along Italy’s border with Switzerland, the vineyards of the Valtellina are a series of impossible-looking terraces planted mostly to Nebbiolo (or, as they call it locally, Chiavennasca). A handful of the top sites have been named and given a “Superiore” classification—the Valtellina’s answer to “Grand Cru”—and one such vineyard is “Inferno,” which, as its name implies, is a steep, south-facing site whose granite-strewn soils collect ample sunlight/heat despite its altitude (400+ meters) and northerly latitude. The other vineyards with the Superiore designation are “Sassella,” “Valgella,” “Grumello,” and “Maroggia,” all of them situated on the north bank of the Adda River, which runs east-west through the city of Sondrio. In total, the Valtellina production zone includes just 300 hectares of registered vineyards, with all the cru sites farmed by many different owners (as in Burgundy).
AR.PE.PE. is short for Arturo Pelizzatti Pérego, the estate’s founder, who has been succeeded by his daughter, Isabella, and sons, Emanuele and Guido. They oversee 13 hectares of vineyards scattered throughout the zone and operate out of a sleek modern winery dug into the hillside of the Grumello cru. This is one of the most striking wineries, and wine regions, in the world; it has a lot in common with Côte-Rôtie in terms of its steep pitches and reliance on hand-built stone terraces to hold everything in place. The vineyards occupying these terraces contain a highly variable, yet extremely stony, mix of alluvial gravel, sand, granite, and limestone, since a lot of the material used to construct the terraces in the first place was hauled up from the banks of the Adda River below. Because the Adda follows an east-west path, vineyards are planted only on its northern bank, 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. Just to the north are the snow-capped peaks of the Swiss Alps.
The “Inferno” cru is known for producing some of the most powerful expressions of Valtellina Nebbiolo, but it’s important to put that in relative terms. Relative to Barolo, for example, Valtellina Nebbiolo is a much more feminine, feline creature, with softer tannins and less alcohol to boot. All the earthy, leathery savor of Nebbiolo is there, layered with tangy red cherries and currants, and you’d be forgiven if you thought you were drinking red Burgundy—to me, the best wines of Valtellina are as close to Burgundy as Nebbiolo gets.
The 2010 “Fiamme Antiche” bottling is 100% Nebbiolo (a.k.a. Chiavennasca) subjected to an extremely long maceration on its skins during fermentation, followed by 24 months’ aging in large casks of 50-hectoliter capacity. In the glass, it’s a light cherry-red with hints of brick at the rim, jumping from the glass with aromas of dried cherry, wild strawberry, blood orange, potpourri, raw tobacco, leather, dried mushroom, black tea, and wet stones. It is tangy and fine, medium-bodied and fresh with loads of aromatic persistence on the finish—it is delicious now after 30-60 minutes in a decanter, but there’s still plenty of life ahead of it. I can’t resist pulling the cork on one bottle sooner rather than later, but the others are slated to slumber for the next 5-10 years. Whenever you choose to open yours, pair it with something woodsy and gamey to bring out its best (and, ahem, that could be Thanksgiving turkey, with which this would be perfect). At my house, we’ve started focusing on the turkey legs only—check out the attached recipe with “Fiamme Antiche” and the game will be changed forever!
