AR.PE.PE. Valtellina Superiore Riserva “Rocce Rosse” Supply

AR.PE.PE. Valtellina Superiore Riserva “Rocce Rosse”

In the recent history of Italian wine, I can think of few producers that have captured the public imagination like AR.PE.PE. This small, family-run property in Lombardy’s remote, mountainous Valtellina region 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.

It’s an expression defined by incredible finesse and perfume, lighter than most examples from Barolo and Barbaresco. 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 vineyard sites have been named and given a “Superiore” classification—the Valtellina’s answer to Grand Cru—and one such vineyard is “Sassella,” the source of today’s profound and still-evolving 2007. “Rocce Rosse” (“red rocks”) is AR.PE.PE.’s old-vine parcel of Sassella, totaling four hectares of Nebbiolo that climb to altitudes exceeding 500 meters. This is reference-point wine, now in its peak drinking window, and still a steal for the quality. It is both delicious and fascinating and should NOT be missed!

I’m lucky enough to have visited AR.PE.PE. and met its gracious, indefatigable proprietor, Isabella Pelizzatti Pérego (AR.PE.PE. is short for Arturo Pelizzatti Pérego, Isabella’s father, who had sold his family brand to another winery back in the early 1980s, only to decide to re-enter the wine business, on a smaller scale, a few years later; the acronym was created to avoid confusion). Isabella and her brothers, Emanuele and Guido, now oversee 13 hectares of prime Valtellina vineyards, including parcels within the “Sassella,” “Grumello” and “Inferno” crus. Their sleek, modern winery is dug into the Grumello hillside, underneath a vineyard, which necessitated working around the occasional immovable boulder. As I’ve noted in previous Valtellina offers, this is one of the most striking wine regions in the world, sharing 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 within 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 the north bank of the river, 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 Valtellina was once an important trade route through one of the few passages through the Alps, but it is ultimately a tiny wine region, spanning only about 300 hectares of vines along a 30-mile stretch of the Adda. In addition to Sassella, there are four other officially delimited vineyards under the Valtellina DOCG umbrella: Inferno, Valgella, Grumello, and Maroggia. All these sites have a multiplicity of owners farming and bottling wines from them (as in Burgundy), 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 total of 24 months (12 of which must be in wood barrels) before release.

“Rocce Rosse” far exceeds those minimums, much like some of the great, old-school Gran Reserva bottlings of Rioja: Hand-harvested Nebbiolo, typically picked in mid-October, is fermented in 50-hectoliter oak vats known as tini, then aged in similarly large, used oak vats for four years. After the wood aging, Rocce Rosse is then rested in cement vats for a time and then further aged in bottle until Isabella and company deem it ready for release. In the case of this 2007, it first saw the light of day at the beginning of 2016! For all intents and purposes, this is the “current release” of this spectacular wine.

And as I’ve also said repeatedly, a wine need not be heavy to be both powerful and persistent. The 2007 “Rocce Rosse” epitomizes that: In the glass, it’s a light brick-red with hints of pink and orange (remember, Nebbiolo is never deeply colored), with a perfumed swirl of dried cherry, strawberry, blood orange, rose petals, raw tobacco, mace, leather, dried mushroom, black tea, and wet slate. Compared to a Barolo or Barbaresco it is considerably less tannic and a good degree less alcoholic, with a very fine-grained quality to the tannins and tremendous freshness. There’s a Fred Astaire weightlessness to it that’s just amazing—decant it about 30 minutes before service in Burgundy stems at 60 degrees. Marvel at its evolution in the glass while enjoying (studying? contemplating?) it alongside the kind of stick-to-your-ribs dish you might find in Valtellina. It’s an experience like no other. Enjoy!