Grapevine: A noble variety

Nebbiolo has found its way firmly into the noble grape variety category, if it wasn’t already, over the past decade or so.

Whether it be the merits of the grape itself and the vast improvements of quality in the iconic Barolo and Barbaresco sub-regions of Piedmont, Italy or the hunt for relative ‘value’ beyond regions such as Burgundy which have escalated beyond the reach of most, or probably a mix of both factors. The wines of Piedmont are quickly chasing down those of Burgundy in price now and thus the hunt expands further and deeper for the next region offering quality, interest and importantly value.

Valtellina in the North of Italy’s Lombardy region has struck a chord here. Nebbiolo, locally known as Chivanesca has been the region’s most notable and most planted grape variety for decades. As an aside, the region was the first achieve the highest Italian quality designation of DOCG for its wines made using the appassimento technique, thus before the now more famous Amarone wines which came much later.

It is wines very much at the opposite end of the spectrum that are now putting the region on the radars of wine, and Nebbiolo fanatics. Valtellina Superiore is the second DOCG in the region and the wines are lauded for their ‘minerality’; the taste of stones and rocks, a term in high use and high demand even if its definition is somewhat muddy. They tend to be quite aromatic and ‘perfumed’ with plenty of red fruits and roses as well as a precise, fine structure.

Finding the wines consistently can be a challenge with over 50 per cent of growers farming less than half an acre, and barely 1 per cent with more than 7 acres. However, the overall small scale means that even the larger produces are still very much focused on quality and improving the image of both the region and their wines. Ar Pe Pe is well and truly in this camp, with 32 acres farmed they released their first wines in the early 1990’s. This came about purely because founder Arturo Pellizzatti Perego was determined to improve the quality of the wines in the region after his family’s winery was originally sold in 1973, he bought it back in 1984 following a period of declining quality in the region which he clearly couldn’t tolerate.

Today they are considered amongst, if not ‘the’, top producers of the region from their ‘basic’ wines through to their top wines from within the 5 principal crus of the region. Their philosophy and techniques are consistent with the trends and demands of wine drinkers today, but they have been applied for decades; fermentation in large used wooden vats with very long skin contact and then ageing, again, in large format old oak. Despite what you may think, that leaving the wine in contact with its skins for a long time would simply extract more, and more bitter, tannin it paradoxically begins to turn the other way with the tannins becoming refined and so well integrated as they do in the wines from Ar Pe Pe.

The Pettirosso ($76) is produced for earlier drinking – the nose is a mix of red fruits, mineral/rock-like characters and for yet another trendy term ‘alpine herbs’. It is such a fine, elegant wine helped by the higher acidity than you will find elsewhere in this grape, along with super fine tannins that are always present but never overbearing. The flavours have depth and persistence but are by no means dense or heavy. A wine of harmony and finesse.